Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration

Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Periodically, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) publishes abstracts of information collection requests under review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, email

paperwork@hrsa.gov

or call the HRSA Reports Clearance Office on (301) 443-1984.

The following request has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995:

Proposed Project: Nursing Scholarship Program (OMB No. 0915-0301)—[Revision]

The Nursing Scholarship Program (NSP) is a competitive Federal program, which awards scholarships to individuals for attendance at accredited schools of nursing. The Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service (BCRS) in HRSA administers the program. The scholarship consists of payment of tuition, fees, other reasonable educational costs, and a monthly support stipend. In return, the students agree to provide a minimum of 2 years of full-time clinical service (or an equivalent part-time commitment, as approved by the NSP) at a health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses as defined by the program.

NSP recipients must be willing to and are required to fulfill their NSP service commitment at a health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses in the United States, which includes, in addition to the States, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. Students who are uncertain of their commitment to provide nursing care in a health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses in the United States or these territories are advised not to participate in this program.

The NSP needs to collect data to determine an applicant's eligibility for the program, to monitor a participant's continued enrollment in a school of nursing, to monitor the participant's compliance with the NSP service obligation, and to obtain data on its program to ensure compliance with statutory mandates and prepare annual reports to Congress. The following information will be collected: (1) From the applicants and/or the schools—general applicant and nursing school data such as full name, location, tuition/fees, and enrollment status; (2) from the schools (on an annual basis)—data concerning tuition/fees and student enrollment status; and (3) from the participants and their health care facilities with a critical shortage of nurses (on a biannual basis)—data concerning the participant's employment status, work schedule, and leave usage. BCRS enters the cost information into its information data system, along with the projected amount for the monthly stipend, to determine the amount of each scholarship award.

The annual estimate of burden is as follows:

Instrument

Number of

respondents

Responses per

respondent

Total

responses

Hours per

response

Total burden hours

Application

4,000

1

4,000

2

8,000

In-School Monitoring

500

1

500

2

1,000

In-Service Monitoring

600

2

1,200

1

1,200

Total

5,100

5,700

10,200

Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of this notice to the desk officer for HRSA, either by email to

OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov

or by fax to 202-395-6974. Please direct all correspondence to the “attention of the desk officer for HRSA.”

Dated: June 5, 2012.

Reva Harris,

Acting Director, Division of Policy and Information Coordination.

[FR Doc. 2012-14001 Filed 6-8-12; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4165-15-P