Section 128385.

(a) There is hereby created the Registered Nurse Education Program within the Health Professions Education Foundation. Persons participating in this program shall be persons who agree in writing prior to graduation to serve in an eligible county health facility, an eligible state-operated health facility, a health workforce shortage area, or a California nursing school, as designated by the director of the office. Persons agreeing to serve in eligible county health facilities, eligible state-operated health facilities, or health workforce shortage areas, and master's or doctoral students agreeing to serve in a California nursing school may apply for scholarship or loan repayment. The Registered Nurse Education Program shall be administered in accordance with Article 1 (commencing with Section 128330), except that all funds in the Registered Nurse Education Fund shall be used only for the purpose of promoting the education of registered nurses and related administrative costs. The Health Professions Education Foundation shall make recommendations to the director of the office concerning both of the following:

(1) A standard contractual agreement to be signed by the director and any student who has received an award to work in an eligible county health facility, an eligible state-operated health facility, or in a health workforce shortage area that would require a period of obligated professional service in the areas of California designated by the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission as deficient in primary care services. The obligated professional service shall be in direct patient care. The agreement shall include a clause entitling the state to recover the funds awarded plus the maximum allowable interest for failure to begin or complete the service obligation.

(2) Maximum allowable amounts for scholarships, educational loans, and loan repayment programs in order to assure the most effective use of these funds.

(b) Applicants may be persons licensed as registered nurses, graduates of associate degree nursing programs prior to entering a program granting a baccalaureate of science degree in nursing, or students entering an entry-level master's degree program in registered nursing or other registered nurse master's or doctoral degree program approved by the Board of Registered Nursing. Priority shall be given to applicants who hold associate degrees in nursing.

(c) Registered nurses and students shall commit to teaching nursing in a California nursing school for five years in order to receive a scholarship or loan repayment for a master's or doctoral degree program.

(d) Not more than 5 percent of the funds available under the Registered Nurse Education Program shall be available for a pilot project designed to test whether it is possible to encourage articulation from associate degree nursing programs to baccalaureate of science degree nursing programs. Persons who otherwise meet the standards of subdivision (a) shall be eligible for educational loans when they are enrolled in associate degree nursing programs. If these persons complete a baccalaureate of science degree nursing program in California within five years of obtaining an associate degree in nursing and meet the standards of this article, these loans shall be completely forgiven.

(e) As used in this section, "eligible county health facility" means a county health facility that has been determined by the office to have a nursing vacancy rate greater than noncounty health facilities located in the same health facility planning area.

(f) As used in this section, "eligible state-operated health facility" means a state-operated health facility that has been determined by the office to have a nursing vacancy rate greater than noncounty health facilities located in the same health facility planning area.

(Amended by Stats. 2006, Ch. 259, Sec. 9. Effective January 1, 2007.)