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(New Brunswick , NJ) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12), along with area nurses, today held a press conference to celebrate National Nurses Week and unveil Holt’s Nursing School Capacity Act of 2005 at St. Peters University Hospital.
“The shortage of registered nurses to fill the needs of our healthcare system is putting patients at risk,” said Holt. “According the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in New Jersey in the year 2000, our nurse shortage was 13%--that’s 8,392 nurses short of workforce demand. This year, it’s risen to 19%, or 12, 961 nurses that we need but don’t have. By the end of the decade, the figure may be as high as 25%, or some 18,733 nurses short of what we need. These health professionals serve at the front lines of hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, and other institutions, yet the training and faculty programs do not have the capacity to fill the needs of the workforce. It’s my hope that this bill will help solve this problem over the long-term.”
Though the Nurse Reinvestment Act and related legislation has improved our ability to recruit nursing applicants, the United States has not invested the necessary resources in improving America’s ability to train and retain nurses. Our schools of nursing do not have the capacity to train the nurses we need. These shortages have forced hospitals and other health care facilities to recruit nurses from countries like South Africa , the Philippines, and India, depleting their health care systems and neglecting the root problem with ours.
“We applaud Congressman Holt for his leadership in introducing this bill to confront our nation's persistent nursing shortage,” said Gary Carter, CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association. “This measure will provide much-needed study of issues related to faculty levels and capacity in our nurse education programs. And ultimately, it will lead us closer to the healthcare community's enduring goal -- to enhance our nation's nursing programs and continue to provide the highest quality of care to our patients.”
“One cause of the nursing shortage is that we don’t have enough funding to hire enough qualified instructors to teach these interested and qualified students,” said Felissa R. Lashley, dean and professor at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. “We are losing faculty and finding it difficult to attract qualified nurses to our graduate programs to receive the education to become faculty members because of much higher salaries being offered by health care agencies.”
"Whether in the home, at the local school or hospital, in their community health center or at a long term care facility, nurses enhance the quality and dignity of their patients' lives," said Mary Ann Christopher, CEO and President of the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey. "Congressman Holt's legislation will raise the awareness of the vital role nurses play in our communities, and will ensure that we identify ways to increase the ranks of the nursing profession."
Holt’s bill will direct the Institute of Medicine to study the constraints experienced by schools of nursing in admitting and graduating an adequate number of registered nurses to fill the workforce. The study will also address the reluctance of nurses to enter faculty positions, and propose short and long-term solutions to these and other issues.
Holt’s introduction of the bill coincides with National Nurses Week 2005, which is May 6 through 12 this year.
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