Assistance program
Nursing Workforce Diversity
$129.5 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Health Resources and Services Administration, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 93.178
- What it does
- The objective of the NWD program is to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce by supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds in becoming registered nurses to decrease health disparities and increase health equity. Supports projects that increase nursing education opportunities for individuals who are from disadvantaged backgrounds, including racial and ethnic minorities that are underrepresented among registered nurses.
- Who benefits
- Project participants (students and trainees supported by HRSA programmatic funding provided through NWD) must be enrolled in an accredited nursing program and be a citizen, national, or permanent resident of the United States. Individuals must be from educationally or economically disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented among registered nurses). Accredited public and nonprofit private schools of nursing and other public or nonprofit private entities. Project participants must be in an accredited program, a citizen of the United States, a non-citizen national of the United States or a foreign national who possesses a visa permitting permanent residence in the United States. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible participants and may not receive NWD grant support.
- Who applies
- Eligible applicants include accredited schools of nursing, nursing centers, academic health centers, State or local governments, and other private or public non-profit entities determined appropriate by the Secretary. Eligible faith-based organizations, community based organizations, and Tribes and Tribal Organizations can apply for these funds if they are otherwise eligible. For-profit entities are not eligible under this Notice of Funding Opportunity. Individuals are not eligible to apply. State (includes District of Columbia, public institutions of higher education and hospitals), Local (includes State-designated lndian Tribes, excludes institutions of higher education and hospitals, Public nonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher education and hospitals), Federally Recognized lndian Tribal Governments, U.S. Territories and possessions, Profit organization, Private nonprofit institution/organization (includes institutions of higher education and hospitals), Native American Organizations (includes lndian groups, cooperatives, corporations, partnerships, associations) Eligible applicants are collegiate schools of nursing, nursing centers, academic health centers, State or local governments, and other private or public entities accredited by a recognized body or bodies or state agency, approved for the purpose of nursing education by the Secretary of Education. In addition to schools in the 50 states, only those in the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau are eligible to apply. Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Government and Native American organizations may apply if they are otherwise eligible.
- Authorized by
- Section 821 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 296m)
- Program site
- http://www.hrsa.gov ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments