Nursing Home Staffing Campaign

The Nursing Home Staffing Campaign (NHSC) is aimed at increasing the availability of nurses, registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses or licensed vocational nurses (LPNs), to work in the nursing home environment, such as in qualifying nursing homes or in an oversight capacity for a state inspection agency. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is focused on helping to recruit RNs and LPNs to work in nursing homes by offering financial incentives. CMS is accepting applications for cooperative agreements to entities that will administer financial incentives, such as tuition reimbursement and stipends to nurses, to work for three years in a qualifying nursing home or in an oversight role with a state agency.

1. Documents demonstrating the applicant has established relationships with organizations or individuals throughout the country to identify large numbers of individuals who would qualify for, and be interested in receiving financial incentives to work in nursing homes. CMS has aligned all states, territories, and Washington D.C. within six separate regions of the country.
CMS will evaluate applicants’ coverage of the entire country, but will award up to two cooperative agreements for each of the six regions. One cooperative agreement will be focused on administering financial incentives to RNs who obtained a four-year degree (bachelor’s degree in nursing), and the other will be focused on RNs who obtained a two year degree (associate’s degree in nursing). In the event CMS awards only one cooperative agreement, the awardee will focus on both types of degreed nurses. CMS may award an applicant more than one region of the country, but will not award more than two cooperative agreements to any one region.
Applicants should demonstrate their coverage for four-year and/or two year degree nurses in all states (e.g., through demonstrating relationships with nursing schools or nursing students or recent graduates)
2. Applicants must describe their ability to implement an infrastructure to begin distributing funds to qualified RNs quickly after receipt of award. This should include a timeline for implementation of the major milestones, such as when the applicant will begin recruiting nurses, and when the first nurse will be recruited and when financial incentives will be disbursed. A faster timeline for recruitment and disbursement of funds is preferred.
3. Applicants must describe how they will recruit nurses, such as working through their relationships using varying communication channels. Applicants should demonstrate how they’ve successfully done similar programs or activities in the past. Applicants should also demonstrate how they will ensure a broad-based and equitable recruitment of individuals amongst various cultures and ethnicities, including minorities and underserved populations. Applicants need to provide estimates of the number of nurses they will recruit to work in qualifying nursing homes or state survey agencies. Applicants should include the methodology used to calculate the estimate. Recruitment will only occur during the designated recruitment period, which will begin immediately after the infrastructure has been completed, and end three years prior to the end of the program period.
4. Applicants must describe how the percent or the amount of funds will be used for the administrative activities needed to manage the distribution of tuition reimbursement and stipends, as described above. Lower administrative costs are strongly preferred in order to allow for the maximum amount of distribution to as many RNs as possible. This should be demonstrated through the applicants’ budget and budget narrative.