FAQ: Nurse Faculty Loan Program

Finding Opportunity Number: HRSA-23-006

• Eligibility
• Program requirements
• Application
• Program-specific forms

Eligibility

Are students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice, Doctor of Education, and Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia programs eligible to receive Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) support?

Yes. Doctor of Nursing Practice, Doctor of Education, and Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia students are eligible to receive Nurse Faculty Loan Program support.

Does the academic institution need to be in a "rural/underserved" area to qualify for NFLP funding?

No. Your academic institution does need to be in a rural or underserved area to qualify for NFLP funding.

Program requirements

Will the awardee need to provide an institutional capital contribution, and should the student’s loan fund account include repayment on NFLP loans made from the fund?

Yes. Your institution must contribute an institutional capital contribution that is equal to not less than one-ninth of the FY 2023 federal award amount received, which is referred to as the Federal Capital Contribution.

You will need to draw down the full FY 2023 NFLP award amount from the Payment Management System within 60 days of receipt of the award and deposit the funds into an interest-bearing, student loan fund account.

Institutions must conduct all loan activities through the student loan fund account which must contain the following:

• Federal Capital Contribution (FCC) loan dollars awarded
• Institutional Capital Contribution matching amount (equal to not less than one-ninth of the FCC)
• Proceeds from the collections of principal and interest (repayment) on NFLP loans made from the fund
• Any other earnings on the loan fund such as interest borne on the account. See page 7 of the NOFO for more information.

How many years can an advanced nursing education student receive NFLP loan support?

There is no duration limitation for loan support for NFLP borrowers. NFLP borrowers can receive funding to cover their entire course of study to become nurse faculty without any loan support duration limit.

What is the minimum number of program nursing education units required to qualify for NFLP?

The award recipient determines the number of program nursing education units required to qualify for NFLP loan funds based on program standards, policies, and procedures at the institution.

What is the cap or percentage of reasonable expenses for loan disbursement, collection, and cancellation activities?

There is no cap or percentage of reasonable expenses for loan disbursement, collection, and loan cancellation activities. You should exercise due diligence and estimate the amount needed for reasonable expenses and collection activities. Such estimation should be outlined in the loan disbursement plan (Attachment 4) and adjusted within the program specific forms.

Must the Project Director be a nurse?

No. The Project Director for the proposed project must have at a minimum an advanced education preparation with a master’s or doctoral level degree. See pages 14 and 15 of the NOFO for more information.

What is the requirement for a nursing student receiving NFLP support to qualify for loan “forgiveness/loan cancellation”?

The graduated student from the advanced nursing education program will need to obtain full-time employment as nurse faculty within 12 months following graduation.

Full-time employment refers to the status of a student borrower who has graduated and is employed and serving in a nurse faculty capacity that qualifies for loan cancellation. The institution which provided NFLP support to a borrower makes the determination about meeting the full-time employment requirement.

This must include one of the following criteria:

• Employment as a full-time faculty member at an accredited school of nursing
• Employment as a part-time faculty member at an accredited school of nursing in combination with another part-time faculty position or part-time clinical preceptor/educator position affiliated with an accredited school of nursing that together equates to full-time employment
• Designation of nurse faculty in a joint nurse faculty appointment serving as full-time advanced practice registered nurse preceptor for an accredited school of nursing, within an academic-practice partnership framework

See page 8 of the NOFO for more information.

How are NFLP awards to institutions determined?

NFLP is a formula-based program. The NFLP funds are distributed among eligible entities as formula-payment based awards according to data supplied in your application. HRSA will calculate FY 2023 award amounts based on the following:

• Number of terms/quarters
• Tuition/fees/expenses amount per term/quarter
• Total number of doctoral and master’s students requested for support
• Total number of continuing and new students requested for support
• Amount of loan fund disbursed and loan fund unobligated
• Amount of federal funds requested
• Default rate percentage- See pages 21-22 of the NOFO for more information.

Is the $40,000 maximum per student for a one-year performance period?

Yes. The award recipient must ensure that:

• NFLP loan support is only made to eligible students to cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, lab expenses, and other reasonable education expenses (including student nurse educator development activities) for the duration of their course of study
• NFLP loan support does not exceed $40,000 per student for any academic period
• NFLP funds may only be used for loan support except for covering the costs of collection of loaned principal and accrued interest and/or penalty, and cost of student nurse educator development activities as reasonable expenses

Application

My school received NFLP funding in previous years. Is my application considered “new” or “competing continuation”?

You must indicate “Continuation” as the type of application when completing the SF-424 R&R form in grants.gov if you are a previous NFLP recipient, regardless of whether the school recently applied for and received funding or had not received funding in recent years.

If you never received NFLP funding, then you must indicate “New” as the type of application when completing the SF-424 R&R form in grants.gov.

We are a current NFLP awardee and still have funds remaining/available. Can we submit for additional funding?

NFLP funds are awarded for a one-year project period. Therefore, previous NFLP award recipients should apply for NFLP funds ONLY when additional funds are needed to provide loan support to students. Previous award recipients will need to determine the amount of funding needed to support their continuing and new students receiving NFLP support.

We determined that our balance available by June 30, 2022 (Section D.1) is enough to support our continuing and estimated new students in 2022-23. Should we apply for additional funds? If we do not apply for funds this year, will it negatively affect our future submissions?

You should not apply for additional funds in FY 2023 if you have enough funds in your NFLP loan fund account to provide loan support for the 2023-2024 project period. Current NFLP grantees are not required to reapply for funds to remain active. Current grantees may apply each year only when additional funds are needed to support students.

What should be included in the “Maintenance of Effort” section of the application?

The Maintenance of Effort (MOE) is based on the institutional capital contribution (ICC) contributed to the prior fiscal year and the estimated ICC amount for the next fiscal year. The MOE amount is calculated as one-ninth of the Federal Capital Contribution award being requested through the current application, also known as the ICC.

• For FY2022 non-federal expenditures (actual), applicants that are “New” or did not receive an award for FY2022 should indicate $0, while FY22 award recipients should indicate the actual institutional contribution deposited in the student loan fund
• For the FY2023 expenditures (estimate) non-federal expenditures, new applicants and previous recipients should indicate the estimated FY2023 institutional contribution based of the federal funds requested in the application

Can schools of nursing under the same umbrella apply together in one region of the state?

No. Multiple applications from an organization are not allowed. An organization is an entity with its own Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Applicants can submit only one application per campus. A campus is defined as a division of a university that has the same name yet has a separate UEI and is separate with its own grounds, buildings (such as a school of nursing), and faculty.

Will the biographical sketch count towards the 40-page limit for this funding opportunity?

No. Biographical sketches (should not exceed two pages per person) are NOT counted in the page limit. See Appendix D: Page Limit Worksheet (page 40) of the NOFO for more information.

Are Continuing Applicants required to include a Corrective Action Plan (CAP)?

Yes. Institutions applying as competing continuations with NFLP loan default rates greater than 5 percent must submit a corrective action plan (CAP) that demonstrates how they will reduce the default rate. The default rate corrective action plan must be signed by the Project Director, the Authorizing Official, or both. Continuing Applicants are ONLY required to submit a CAP for a Loan Default Rate (DR) greater than 5% as noted in their 2022 Annual Performance Report (NFLP 3 Form). New Applicants, and Continuing Applicants with a DR less than 5% are not required to submit a CAP.

Program-specific forms

If the award covers the effort of the financial management staff for oversight of NFLP funds, data collection and reporting to HRSA, where is that indicated in the budget?

NFLP does not require submission of a budget but requires submission of the Loan Disbursement Plan (Attachment 4).

Note: A tabular format is preferred for the Loan Disbursement Plan. See the example in the NOFO TA Webinar recording.

My institution has two different advanced practice registered nurse roles with different tuition costs. How should I enter the tuition amount?

You must enter the average amount for one term with fees/expenses based on the required full-time credit hours if your institution has more than one tuition cost.

Where do we report Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students on Part4-NFLP Enrollees by Practice role?

You should use “Other” row to report NFLP Enrollees by Degree and Specialty for any Nurse Practice Specialty not listed on table E.4 of the NFLP Program-Specific Forms.