There is an acute shortage of nurses in the US at many of the health care centers especially those that are oriented towards helping the low income populations. Therefore to promote nursing as a career and ensure availability of more nurses at such health care centers the government has come up with the Nursing Education Loans Repayment Program which offers to payback up to 85 % of the nursing education loan outstanding against a nurse who is willing to work at those designated health care centers.

The program is open to all US citizens who have completed their nursing studies in the US and are now licensed and registered as qualified nursing personnel from a degree, diploma, baccalaureate or associate program. All the applicant needs to do is agree and commit to be employed in a non profit health care unit or nursing school on a full time basis for a period of at least two years. The applicants will continue to draw regular salaries from the employers at these health care centers while serving the stipulated two year period in lieu of the financial assistance by the government. The eligible hospitals that can be considered by the loan repayment program are Federally Qualified Health Centers, Indian Health Service Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics, Nursing Homes, Local Public Health or Human Services Department, Hospice Programs, Skilled Nursing Facilities, Home Health Agencies and Ambulatory Surgical Centers.

The schedule in the program offers to payback 60 % of the total outstanding nursing educational loan of the applicant if the individual commits to serve at any such centre on a full time basis with minimum of 35 hours per week for a period of two years implying 45 weeks per year. An additional 25 % of the total outstanding nursing educational loan against the applicant can be further paid up by the goverment for the third year of committed service at any of the above mentioned facilities on a full time basis.

During the sanctioning of this repayment program a definite priority is given to those applicants whose outstanding educational loan amounts are more than 40 % of their basic salary per year. Additionally those nurses, who are serving at facilities that have the maximum shortfall of qualified nurses, are given advantage over other applicants in the sanction of this financial help.

These programs are aimed at helping out nurses to pay back educational loans and can be applied for once in a year. The exact schedules and other eligibility criterion are clearly mentioned in the Application and Program Guidance which must be carefully read before making the application for the repayment program. The government’s objective is that while helping out needy citizens it will also be able to make more nurses available at the critical health care centers that are presently facing shortage of trained and qualified nurses. Not only does the program make more nurses available but it also a step further to encourage students to take up the nursing career as they know that their educational loan can now easily be paid by the government.