Biden Invests $100 Million to Grow Nursing Workforce

— Includes support for trainees, faculty positions, and NPs launching practices

by Shannon Firth, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today

MedpageToday
A photo of students at a nursing college during a visit by Jill Biden.

The Biden Administration announced new funding on Thursday to help grow and retain the nurse workforce.

"The $100 million dollars we are announcing today does three key things," said Carole Johnson, administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): It helps to build a "career ladder" for licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and vocational nurses who want to become registered nurses; targets bottlenecks in nursing by incentivizing more nurses to become faculty; and supports training for nurses to become primary care providers who can help to fill gaps in care for maternal health, mental health, and substance use disorders.

In 2022, nearly 80,000 qualified applications were rejected by nursing schools, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Johnson said. "And one of the reasons for that is a lack of faculty."

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said that in visiting with deans and faculty at nursing schools in different states, he consistently hears that the faculty shortage is one of the biggest obstacles to expanding the workforce.

Becerra noted that June Eastridge, MSN, RN, EdD, dean of the School of Nursing at Nevada State College in Henderson, had told him, "It's tough to lure an experienced ... licensed practitioner to teach because they lose so much income."

The HHS Secretary and Eastridge spoke about how HRSA is targeting precisely that issue in establishing grants so that nurses aren't having to give up their income to become instructors.

Similarly, "there is no reason why a qualified American who wishes to become a nurse should not have a place where they can learn," Becerra said. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure that that budding nurse and that practiced experienced nurse have a chance to learn and to teach."

The awards will be distributed across the following programs:

The NEPQR-PRNP will award up to $1 million per grantee, providing stipends and tuition assistance as well as social supports, such as for transportation and childcare. These kinds of supports will help LPNs who want to become registered nurses advance in their career, Johnson explained.

In addition, the NFLP will provide grants to awardees to offer low-interest loans to individuals training to become nurse faculty and up to 85% loan cancellation plus interest, she said, for those who graduate and work 4 years as full-time nurse faculty.

Johnson estimates the program could help produce 3,000 additional nurse instructors.

The ANE-NPRF program mirrors the residency model for physicians and applies it to NPs, allowing them to receive "intensive training" that will ultimately help them launch their own primary care practices.

The program will focus heavily on behavioral health integration, Johnson said.

Also, ANEW grants, awarded to 56 grantees, will help defray tuition and build partnerships between academic medical training programs and community settings, "so that nurses can lead when it comes to delivering primary care, maternal healthcare support, mental health, and [care for people with] substance use disorders," she said.

In each of these areas, there are gaps in services, Johnson added. "We know advanced practice nurses can fill those critical gaps ... and this program is critical to doing it."

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    Shannon Firth has been reporting on health policy as MedPage Today's Washington correspondent since 2014. She is also a member of the site's Enterprise & Investigative Reporting team. Follow