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HRSA Nursing Loan Repayment Program Gets an Infusion of Funding

With only so much financial aid and scholarship money to go around, many financially needy minority students have no choice but to take out loans to help them complete their nursing education, saddling them with a burden of debt that may take years to repay. Loan forgiveness programs, such as the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program (NELRP), which pay back student loans in exchange for a commitment to work in an underserved area for a specific period of time, are a win-win solution that not only benefits nursing graduates but also minority communities that are feeling the pinch of the nursing shortage.

More than 400 nurses are now working in critically underserved areas as participants in NELRP. The program received a hefty $7.3 million in new funding in 2001, including an extra $5 million that Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson transferred to HRSA last summer to specifically address the national nursing shortage. President Bush’s 2003 budget is expected to allocate a total of $15 million—a 50% increase over last year’s funding—to further expand NELRP. This increase is intended to support 800 new nursing education loan agreements.

NELRP participants must enter into a contractual agreement to provide two years of full-time clinical care at an eligible facility in an underserved community with a significant nursing shortage, such as Indian Health Service Health Centers, Native Hawaiian Health Centers, public hospitals and Migrant Health Centers. In return, NELRP will pay 60% of the nurse’s total qualifying educational loan balances (up to $30,000), subject to availability of program funds. You may qualify for an additional 25% repayment if you sign on for a third year. In other words, participants can effectively pay off 85% of their original educational loan balance within three years.

This year’s applications for the NELRP program, which is open to all RNs, will be available in April on HRSA’s Web site, www.hrsa.gov. The application deadline is expected to be June 14, 2002. For more information, contact HRSA at (800) 435-6464 or visit http://bphc.hrsa.gov/programs/NELRProgramInfo.HTM.