FINALNAT 2019 Supporting Statement

Supporting Statement A

Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship (NAT) Program Specific Data Forms

OMB Control No. 0915-0374

Terms of Clearance: Revision

A. Justification

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) currently has approval under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No. 0915-0374 with an expiration date of 03/31/2020 to collect data in its Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). This request is for continued approval with revisions of the information collection request for the applicants of the Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship (NAT) Program HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW), Division of Nursing and Public Health. The NAT Program is authorized by Section 811 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act (42 U.S.C. 296j). Through the NAT Program, HRSA provides advanced education nursing training grants to educational institutions to increase the numbers of certified registered nurse anesthetists providing care, especially to rural and underserved populations.

2. Purpose and Use of Information Collection

HRSA uses the data from the NAT Program Specific Data Forms to determine if the funding factors (either the statutory funding preference or special consideration) are met and to determine the award amount. Funds appropriated for the NAT Program are distributed among eligible institutions based on a formula, as permitted by PHS Act Section 806e(1).

The NAT Program Specific Data Forms request information on nursing program participants from the previous year including the following: number of enrollees/trainees, number of enrollees/trainees supported, number of graduates, number of graduates supported, number of projected enrollees/trainees, degree program (Master’s and Doctoral), and the distribution of nurse anesthetists who practice in underserved, rural, and/or public health practice settings.

For FY 2020, HRSA is changing the length of the NAT Program project period from 1 year to 3 years and updating the current NAT formula. This change will reduce the burden on applicants who previously had to submit data annually and also reduce the administrative burden on HRSA and BHW staff. As a result of these program changes, the NAT Program Specific Data Forms will be revised to capture additional years of data so that the program award amounts for each year of a multi-year project period can be calculated.

• Table 1 will add columns to collect Year 2 and Year 3 data for the number of prospective students.

• Table 2 data collection element will not change; however, the header will change to provide further clarification about the data being collected. The new header adds Year 1 (07/01/XX-06/30/XY).

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

HRSA collects all of this data electronically through the application process using digital program-specific forms on grants.gov. This approach results in a low burden of responding.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

There is no duplication of reporting with this activity. The data collection is revised to capture information that is most salient to program management and award determination in a manner that is appropriate to the legislative intent and the administration of the program. The application data is pre-award information while BHW Performance Reporting data is post-award information.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

No small businesses will be involved in this study.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

There are no legal obstacles to reduce the burden. Effective FY 2020, this data collection will be every three years when the NAT Program competes (contingent on appropriations). This data collection is essential in serving as an instrument for determining award amounts. Not collecting this vital data would impact the agency’s ability to (1) execute the NAT Program, (2) provide program specific information, and (3) determine award amounts.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

The request fully complies with the regulation.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice/Outside Consultation

Section 8A:

A 60-day Federal Register Notice was published in the Federal Register on July 5, 2019, (Vol.84, No. 129; pp. 32189). There were no public comments. HRSA has used these data collection tables annually and in 2017, conducted a separate consultation with people from outside the agency.

Section 8B:

For this Reinstatement with Revisions, HRSA did not conduct a separate consultation with people from outside the agency due to the minimal modifications. 

9. Explanation of any Payment/Gift to Respondents

Respondents will not receive any payments or gifts.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents

Data will be kept private to the extent allowed by law. Private identifiers are not collected for this data collection.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

Data does not request questions of a sensitive nature, such as Social Security Number, religious beliefs, race/ethnicity, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

12. Estimates of Annualized Hour and Cost Burden

The estimated annualized burden for the proposed data collection activities varies by applicant organization providing the required information. The table below summarizes the Burden Hours for this information collection.

12A. Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Type of Respondent	Form Name	Number of Respondents	Responses Per Respondent	Number of Responses	Average Burden Per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
Applicant	Table 1	100	1	100	3.5	350
Applicant	Table 2	100	1	100	2.8	280
Total		100*		100		630

*The same respondents are completing Tables 1 and Table 2.

12B. Estimated Annualized Burden Cost

Type of Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate	Total Respondent Costs
Applicant	630	$168.06	$105,877.80
Total	630		$105,877.80

* The Department of Labor website can be used to determine appropriate Wage Rates for respondents-Nurse Anesthetists (http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm).

13. Estimates of other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Recordkeepers/Capital Costs

Other than their time, there is no anticipated additional cost to respondents as the applicants should currently have systems in place for data collection.

14. Annualized Cost to the Government

The systems used to collect information for the applications is maintained at each applicant organization and maintained in the HRSA EHBs System when submitted to this Federal agency.

15. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

The current hour burden inventory is 620 hours. This request is for 630 hours with the increase being due to a program change that increases the length of the NAT award from 1 year to 3 years. The increase in time was to accommodate for the extra time spent collecting the additional 2 years of data.

16. Plans for Tabulation, Publication, and Project Time Schedule

This information collection will not use statistical methods such as sampling, imputation, or other statistical estimation techniques. This information collection will be published in the NAT NOFO which will be on the worldwide web, Grants.gov and the HRSA EHBs. The OMB Reinstatement with Revisions approval is needed for the NOFO, to collect (maintain and analysis) the data, to use the data for the NAT award calculation and for the electronic system. Clearance is requested for the maximum 3 years.

17. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

No exemption is being requested. The OMB Number and Expiration date will be displayed.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

This information collection activity will comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

4