Deadline: Closed until future appropriations are made.

Program

The Rural Nursing Recruitment & Retention Program (RNRR) supports qualified rural health care facilities. The RNRR Program aims to provide eligible rural Texas healthcare facilities with funds to incentivize nurses to work, or continue to work, in their facility by providing a stipend assistance program.

An awarded facility shall provide stipend assistance to a selected nurse who is currently employed, or will be employed, by the facility and who agrees to work full-time for a minimum of 36 consecutive months.

Authority 
Texas Government Code §487.051 provides that the TDA shall assist rural communities in the key areas of economic development, community development, rural health, and rural housing. The 88th Texas Legislature appropriated funds under the House Bill 1, General Appropriations Action for the 2024-25 Biennium, Article VI, Rider 29 to TDA for rural nursing retention and recruitment. 

Eligibility

An eligible rural Texas healthcare facility for the RNRR Program will be any healthcare facility that:

• employs nurses;
• provides direct patient care to its community as a whole;
• accepts Medicare/Medicaid patients; and
• is located within a rural Texas county with a population of 68,000 or less.

Examples of eligible healthcare facilities include, but not limited to, the following:

• Hospitals;
• Rural Health Clinics;
• Nursing Homes/Assisted Living Facility; or
• Public Health Departments.