This announcement solicits applications for the Advanced Nursing Education Program to support the enhancement of advanced nursing education and practice.  Funded projects will implement creative academic-practice partnerships within advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) primary care programs.  Partnerships between academic institutions and rural and/or underserved primary care practice sites will promote APRN studentsâ₏™ readiness to practice upon graduation by improving training and competencies for both students and preceptors.  Working collectively, these partnerships will ·        Facilitate the meaningful exchange of information to identify the needs of the community and the clinical workforce; ·        Use this information to enhance curriculum, preceptor recruitment, training and evaluation; and ·        Shape the experiential training of advance practice nursing students to be better prepared upon graduation to provide care for rural and underserved populations. Program Requirements The ANE program supports partnerships formed between academic institutions and primary care practice sites in order to improve experiential training and competencies for students and preceptors. ANE applicants must create academic-practice partnerships and utilize these partnerships to develop new strategies and models for preparing graduate nursing students to address the unique, medically-complex needs of rural and underserved populations. This must include a definitive, measurable plan to facilitate the meaningful exchange of information between programs of nursing and primary care practice sites that serve underserved and rural populations.  This meaningful exchange of information will highlight any gaps in student preparation and preceptor knowledge and skills and lead to recommendations to resolve these training gaps. ANE applicants must: ·        Establish or enhance academic-practice partnerships between at least one school of nursing and two or more primary care facilities that are located in underserved and/or rural settings; ·        Establish formal, ongoing feedback mechanisms between schools and practice sites to yield enhanced curriculum and a meaningful training experience by: o  Assessing advanced practice studentsâ₏™ knowledge, skills, and abilities and identifying specific training gaps to inform improvements to current curriculum and clinical training; and o  Assessing preceptor competencies, identifying specific training gaps, and providing the necessary training to improve preceptor knowledge and skills; and ·        Expand clinical training opportunities in primary care settings located in underserved and/or rural settings and place advanced practice nursing students in these practice sites. Funding Factors For this program, HRSA will use statutory funding preferences. If requesting one of the statutory funding preferences, applicants must request the preference and demonstrate they meet all of the criteria of the identified funding preference as outlined in Section V.2. Review and Selection Process. Applicants should state their intention to request the funding preference in the Project Abstract and demonstrate meeting the criteria in Attachment 10.