Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) Program | HRSA 16 064

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 16 064

The Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) Program is a discretionary grant opportunity from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) intended to expand and strengthen pathways into nursing for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a specific emphasis on racial and ethnic minorities who remain underrepresented among registered nurses. The core idea behind the program is not only to recruit students, but to keep them in nursing programs through graduation by intentionally addressing the real-world conditions that shape educational outcomes. To do that, the program expects applicants to use social determinants of health and education (factors such as financial strain, transportation, housing instability, family responsibilities, academic preparation, and limited access to support systems) to guide how they design student retention and success strategies.

The program supports a wide range of activities that reduce barriers to entry, persistence, and completion in nursing education. Funded projects may provide direct student financial support through stipends or scholarships, including scholarships or stipends for students in accelerated nursing degree programs. The program also allows stipends for diploma or associate degree nurses who are moving into bridge programs or degree completion tracks, along with pre-entry preparation efforts (such as readiness or pipeline programming), advanced education preparation, and structured retention activities. In practice, this means a funded project can combine money for students with tutoring, mentoring, and other supports that help students stay on track academically and personally.

A central requirement of the NWD program is that applicants must do more than describe a need for diversity. They must identify and clearly explain the root causes of attrition among their target students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This includes a focused discussion of the specific social determinants that are limiting student achievement and persistence in that institution or community. Applications are expected to show how that analysis directly informs the selection of evidence-based approaches that have been shown to work for retaining disadvantaged nursing students, including underrepresented racial and ethnic minority students. The expectation is that the proposed plan is practical, grounded in documented evidence, and tailored to the barriers students are actually facing rather than using generic retention activities.

HRSA signals that strong retention strategies typically involve a combination of several elements, rather than relying on only one intervention. The evidence-based approaches highlighted in the announcement include academic and peer support (for example, tutoring, study groups, supplemental instruction, or structured peer networks), mentoring (faculty, peer, or professional mentoring models), institutional and community partnerships, and student financial support. Competitive applicants are expected to demonstrate how they will blend these components in a coordinated way to support students with low academic achievement or those at risk of failing, and to show how the planned interventions connect back to the identified social determinants affecting their students.

Two expectations are particularly explicit. First, applicants must implement at least one partnership with both an internal institutional partner and an external community organization. The partnerships should be designed to improve academic achievement and persistence through efforts like academic enhancement, science and math enrichment, and mentoring supports. Second, applicants must identify and address institutional structures within schools of nursing that act as barriers to student success. This requirement pushes applicants to look at policies, program design, advising systems, course sequencing, clinical placement access, gatekeeping practices, or other institutional factors that may unintentionally contribute to dropout or failure for disadvantaged students.

The announcement also makes clear what sets highly competitive applications apart. Strong applicants are expected to demonstrate a real organizational commitment to diversity in nursing, provide evidence that they have historically faced challenges retaining disadvantaged students, and present a clear analysis of the root causes of those challenges using a social determinants lens. They also should describe concrete actions already taken or underway, such as hiring key staff, building internal student support programs, and establishing external partnerships, rather than treating the project as purely aspirational. In other words, the most competitive proposals tend to show readiness and capacity to implement quickly, evaluate effectively, and sustain meaningful retention improvements.

Eligibility is broad but institution-focused. Eligible applicants include accredited schools of nursing, nursing centers, academic health centers, state or local governments, and other public or private entities the Secretary deems appropriate. Faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, and Tribes and Tribal Organizations may apply if they otherwise meet eligibility requirements. Individuals cannot apply. A major compliance detail is that any school of nursing involved in providing a formal degree program must be accredited by a recognized national nursing education accrediting agency or an approved state agency, and the application must include proof of accreditation as Attachment 8 (such as an official accreditation letter showing the approved dates). Applications missing this documentation are considered non-responsive and will not be reviewed for funding, and simply linking to an accreditor website is not accepted as proof.

From the funding notice details provided, this opportunity is listed under HRSA funding opportunity number HRSA-16-064, CFDA 93.178, categorized as a grant in the health activity area. The original closing date shown is November 16, 2015, and the notice anticipated about 12 awards, with no specific award ceiling stated in the provided data.

• The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.178.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2015-09-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2015-11-16. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Others.

Apply for HRSA 16 064

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