Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship (AENT) Program - FY 2014 Funding Opportunity Announcement. Frequently Asked Questions

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1 Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship (AENT) Program - FY 2014 Funding Opportunity Announcement Frequently Asked Questions 1. How do I register for the Division of Nursing Listserve? Interested parties should access the Division of Nursing website at and on the right hand side you will see information to select to sign up for the ListServe. 2. Is there a URL for the Two Tier Application Guidance? Please reference page 1 in the AENT HRSA Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). All applicants are responsible for reading and complying with the instructions included in HRSA s SF- 424 R&R Two Tier Application Guide, available online at except where instructed in the FOA to do otherwise. Eligibility and Program 3. Are Post Master NP students eligible to receive traineeship funding? All eligible students must be pursuing advanced degrees to become primary care nurse practitioners or nurse midwifes (p. 6 of FOA). 4. Are Post Master's certificate programs situated within accredited Masters programs eligible to apply, as CCNE will not begin accrediting Post Master's programs until 2014? Yes. Please ensure that approval documentation to enroll students in the program is included with the application, if it is a new post master s certificate program at your institution. Please see pages 5 and 15 of the FOA regarding approval. 5. Does the school need to provide evidence of Post Master's program CCNE accreditation if the Master s program is accredited? Documentation of accreditation of the Master s program will meet the requirement. 6. Are participants in Women s Health NP (WHNP), Acute Care Gerontology, Family Psychiatric/Mental Health NP (F/PMH NP) programs considered eligible (as primary care providers)? WHNP are considered primary care providers. F/PMH NP s are considered primary care providers. Acute Care Gerontology is not considered primary care. Please refer to the glossary on page 34 for the definition of the primary care NP specialties.

2 7. What is meant by the target population? Is it the jurisdictions of the state or specific patient populations of the clinical sites? The target populations are the recipients served by the supported primary care providers. (See FOA, p. 8) 8. Regarding the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designation, should we indicate where the school is physically located to determine whether we have the HPSA designation for attachment 6? Or will you be looking at other things like where the clinical sites are? Please indicate where the performance/practice sites are located to determine HPSA designation and confer with the individual sites to determine HPSA designation. Please refer to page 17 of the FOA. Applicants can determine if they are eligible to be designated as a HPSA by using the Shortage Designation Advisor link indicated on page 17 of the FOA. 9. For Attachment 6 Documentation of Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA s) and/or Sites Designated by a State Governor - please confirm that the HPSA designation is referring to the institution or school of nursing? Attachment 6 HPSA designations are for the performance/practice sites. In the case of multiple sites, the school may list its most prominently used sites. 10. Does the requirement for "full documentation of all approvals" listed at the bottom of FOA page 5 apply to schools of nursing that are already accredited and have documentation to show that they are accredited? No, only for new schools and new programs. 11. Will new programs be considered last or will they be considered competitive if they meet other criteria? All applications that meet the required criteria are equally competitive. 12. Can an administrative person create an account and enter information in for a Project Director (PD)? Yes, the PD may grant access to an EHB account for significant program staff. 13. Does an institution currently funded by AENT need to submit a competing continuation application or new application? Current applicants should submit competing continuation applications. 14. How is the competing continuation application different from the FOA aside from the appendix with program outcomes? Competing continuation applications include a project summary in the WorkPlan section as outlined in the FOA. These applications must compete for support in the same manner as new applications (See HRSA SF-424 R&R Two Tier Application Guide, p. 11).

3 Administrative, Financial and Trainee Support 15. Is the AENT Program under Expanded Authority? No. Requests for carry-over of unobligated funds must be submitted within HRSA Electronic Handbooks System (EHBs) as prior approval requests. Once awarded, your Grants Management Specialist can provide guidance on submitting the request. 16. Is it at the University's discretion to distribute the scholarships based on where the student has the greatest need (i.e. stipend vs. tuition and fees)? AENT allowable costs include traineeship support only (pages 4 & 19 of FOA). Distribution of the traineeship funds to eligible students are at the discretion of the institution, as long as all other HRSA guidelines are followed. 17. Since the project period is 2 years would it be appropriate to request $350,000/year, or is the total grant award for the entire two-year period $350,000? Applicants may apply for a ceiling amount of up to $350,000 per year (inclusive of 8% indirect costs), for two years. This is for a maximum total of $700,000. Please see p. 4 of the FOA. 18. Can full-time students be funded at less than 22,000 per year? Yes. $22,000 per year is the maximum for full time students; $11,000 per year is the maximum for part time students within the last 12 months of study in the program. 19. Should students that are enrolled full-time in the fall but part-time in the spring be categorized as full or part-time to determine eligibility for traineeship awards? The applicant school/program has to make this determination. Look at the entire year, and consider full or part-time status based on the majority of time the student spends as full-time or part-time. 20. Can we provide just a stipend to the student up to $22,000 for full-time and $11,000 for parttime, or only the tuition and fees and not the stipend? A student may receive less than $22,000 if full-time and less than $11,000 if part-time. Please note that a student is only eligible for part-time support while enrolled in the final 12 months preceding program completion. Also, traineeship awards can be dispersed as needed as long as they do not exceed $22,000 for full-time, or $11,000 for part-time students. Distribution of the traineeship funds to eligible students are at the discretion of the educational institution, as long as HRSA guidelines are followed. You can assign costs to all eligible items such as tuition, fees and stipends or just one or two. 21. Are stipends taxable? The grantee organization should consult with the United States Department of Treasury - Internal Revenue Service regarding all tax questions including taxes on stipends.

4 22. Can you give examples of other sources of HRSA funding that would exclude a student from funding under AENT? For example, if a student is enrolled in an ANE funded program, would that student qualify? Students may not use trainee support from another HRSA funded source to cover the same expenses. The Advanced Nursing Education (ANE) program provides structural educational support and is not a trainee support program. Thus, a student could be enrolled in a school that is supported by both ANE and AENT funds, and be eligible for the AENT support. 23. What specifically does the 8% apply to? The indirect cost may be applied to textbooks and stipends only. Indirect costs may not be applied toward Tuition and most Fees. Contact the GMS for details at Bholmes@hrsa.gov. 24. Should the applicant submit an itemized budget for each individual student, or for full-time students in general? The students needs are not known until they're identified. Please see instructions under Budget section in FOA (pages 12-13) for a detailed explanation and example of preparing your budget. 25. If the applicant provides for full-time support in the budget, can that be re-budgeted into two part-time awards if the situation warrants? Yes, but any re-budgeting would require an approved prior approval request. If awarded, you submit these through the EHB. The Project Officer and Grants Management Specialist will review and assure that there is appropriate justification. 26. If there is a new full-time student who started Fall 2014 and is awarded AENT funds as a full-time student, and for spring they drop to 9 hours instead of the 10 to be considered full-time, how is the award to be handled for the Spring quarter? The applicant school/program has to make this determination. It may be helpful to look at the entire year, and consider full or part-time status based on the majority of time the student spends as full-time or part-time. Phase I and II Submission Contents 27. Are a pre-application and a cover letter attachment required? This can't be determined from the guide or the FOA. Pre-application is not required for this program. The cover pages to be completed are part of the SF 424 R&R package. No cover letter is required. 28. How long after Phase I is completed, will EHB be available? Supplemental information is due in the HRSA EHB by January 30, 2014 at 5:00 pm eastern time. 29. To which phase are the project abstract and project narrative to be added?

5 The Projects Abstract and Narrative are to be uploaded into the SF 424 R&R in Phase I (items 7 project abstract and 8 program narrative). 30. What is to be uploaded in Phase I? Phase I is due in by 11:59 PM on January 16, It should contain a) Attachment 1 Accreditation documentation; b) SF-424 R&R; c) Assurances for Non-Construction Programs (SF- 424B); d) Project / Performance Site Location(s); e) Research and Related Senior Key Person Profile; f) Research and Related Other Project Information: Attach the Project Abstract in Item 7, Attach the Project Narrative in Item 8; g) Research and Related Budget: Attach the Budget Justification / Narrative in Item K on the Research and Related Budget Period 1 Form see the FOA for Budget instruction. Insert a blank filler page for the Biographical Sketch on the R&R Senior/Key Person Profile in grants.gov. The blank will not count against page limits. Please submit the Biographical Sketch as Attachment # 3 in the HRSA EHB in Phase What is to be uploaded in Phase II? Phase II application is due in HRSA Electronic Handbook (EHB) at 5:00 PM by January 30, It should include AENT Program Specific Tables: Tables 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B; and AENT Attachments 2 8/ What is the date range for Tables 1A and 1B? The date range for the FY 2014 FOA for these tables is July 1, 2012 through June 30, What should schools that do not have current AENT grants do with Table 1B? Complete the table, inserting zeros as necessary. All applicants must complete Table 1A and Table 1B. 34. Does HRSA want to know where past graduates of schools of nursing are working, and for what years? Table 1A requests Graduate Practice Settings Data, specifically for Rural, Underserved, or Public Health Practice Settings, for the period of July 1, 2012 to June 30, Also, if awarded, graduate employment data will be required for the Performance Measures Reports for the Prior Year Table. 35. If a graduate in 2012/13 received 2011/12 AENT funding but not in 2012/13, do we count those students? The graduate would not have been a student for the year, so they should not be counted as a student/enrollee. 36. Under Special Considerations on page 24, it refers to the high rate for the # of graduates who HAD clinical experiences in HPSAs Does this means the % of your students in that graduating

6 class who had placements during that school year in HPSAs, not that they're in HPSAs now as employees? Per the FOA on page 28: Meeting the Special Consideration by demonstrating High Rate : To qualify for the Special Consideration demonstrating high rate, an eligible applicant must have a high rate of 7/1/2012 to 6/30/2013 graduates who had clinical experiences in HPSAs when compared to the rest of the 2014 competition applicants. The numerator will be the number of graduates who had clinical experiences in HPSAs between 7/1/2012 to 6/30/2913. The denominator will be total number of graduates in all primary care settings from 7/1/2012 to 6/30/2013.