[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 18, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S7875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              NURSE RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION ACT OF 2001

  Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, I want to commend Senator Rockefeller, 
Chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, VA, for his leadership 
on the measure we are introducing today, the Nurse Recruitment and 
Retention Act of 2001.
  I also want to commend Senator Rockefeller for conducting his first 
hearing as newly appointed Chairman of the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs on the looming nursing shortage. The Federal health sector, 
employing approximately 45,000 nurses and the VA as the single largest 
employer of nurses may be the hardest hit in the near future with an 
estimated 47 percent of its nursing workforce eligible for retirement 
in the year 2004. Current and anticipated nursing vacancies in Federal 
health care agencies are particularly alarming with the increased 
nursing care needs of an aging America. The Journal of the American 
Medical Association published a study last year which found the average 
age of the nursing workforce rose by 4.5 years between 1983 and 1998, 
mostly because fewer younger people are joining the profession.
  It is imperative that the VA have the ability to recruit and retain 
nurses. Expert witnesses, like Nurses' Organization of Veterans 
Affairs, NOVA, President Sarah Meyers R.N., Ph.D. of Atlanta, GA, 
testified at the June 14 hearing. These witnesses identified critical 
issues ranging from those impacting VA nurses' ability to continue to 
safely care for veterans to nursing burn-out. Senator Rockefeller and I 
have developed a comprehensive proposal to address both recruitment and 
retention of VA nurses.
  The Nurse Recruitment and Retention Act of 2001 includes provisions 
for the nurse scholarship program and education debt reduction. The 
bill's other needed measures to enhance retention of nurses are: 
Saturday premium pay for nurses and other identified health 
professionals, inclusion of unused sick leave in retirement computation 
for nurses enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System, FERS, 
and full-time service credit in annuity computation for part-time 
service prior to April 7, 1986. Also proposed are reports to Congress 
on: (1) the use of mandatory overtime with recommendations for 
alternative staffing strategies and (2) the encouraged use of waivers 
of pay reduction for reemployed annuitants to fill needed nurse 
positions to enhance recruitment.
  The Nurse Recruitment and Retention Act of 2001 is needed now in 
order for VA nurses to continue to care for this country's veterans.

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