[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 172 (Wednesday, December 12, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2262-E2263]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE NURSE REINVESTMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2001

  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this important 
legislation, the Nurse Reinvestment Act, to help relieve America's 
nursing shortage.
  Every American should be concerned about the growing shortage of 
nurses. Just as more Americans are reaching their golden years, fewer 
nurses are graduating from nursing schools to provide them the quality 
health care they earned and deserve.
  Less well known, but of equal severity and concern, is the fact that 
there is a shortage of nurse anesthetists in America. Certified 
Registered Nurse Anesthetists, or CRNAs, provide 65 percent of 
anesthetics in the U.S., and are the sole anesthesia provider to 70 
percent of U.S. rural hospitals. They are the military's predominant 
anesthesia provider, especially on U.S. Navy ships and at forward-
deployed locations, serving our men and women in uniform as we are 
united in America's war on terror. They are registered nurses, who go 
on to complete masters-level education and certification in nurse 
anesthesia, and are considered a type of advanced practice nurse, 
licensed to practice in all 50 states. America's 28,000 CRNAs meet the 
most stringent continuing education and recertification requirements in 
anesthesia care. And with all this, the Institute of Medicine reported 
in its landmark survey of medical errors, To Err Is Human, that 
anesthesia care is 50 times safer than 20 years ago.
  And there are not enough CRNAs today. The growth in the number of 
Medicare-eligible Americans compounds the growth in the number of 
surgical procedures requiring anesthetics. A 2001 survey of nurse 
anesthetist managers reported a 250 percent increase in CRNA vacancies 
among those managers reporting vacancies just since 1997. America's 83 
accredited schools of nurse anesthesia are graduating more CRNAs, just 
not enough to keep up with growing demand. In real life, this

[[Page E2263]]

means surgeries get delayed, operating rooms lie unused, and hospitals 
and patients suffer, for a lack of a sufficient number of nurse 
anesthetists. We simply need to educate more of them.
  This important legislation helps relieve the nursing shortage, and 
the CRNA shortage, in several important ways. It expands the 
authorization of the existing Nurse Loan Repayment program, so that 
nurses, including CRNAs, can work off their obligations in a greater 
range of health care sites with shortages, such as rural hospitals, 
Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and Critical Access Hospitals. It 
authorizes scholarships for nurses, including CRNAs, who agree to work 
in shortage areas. It provides important new incentives to educate 
nursing faculty, and to reach out to young people with the information 
they need to consider nursing as a positive, challenging, and life-
changing career that is both economically secure and flexible.
  This is only the beginning of our work on relieving this critical 
shortage. In 2002, Congress is due to consider reauthorizing of 
existing nurse education programs, Title VIII of the Public Health 
Service Act. I hope that as we reauthorize the Title VIII programs, we 
can look for creative ways to expand the number of nurses in America, 
while growing our ranks of advanced practice nurses such as nurse 
anesthetists.
  I want to thank several Members for their excellent work on this 
bill; Chairman Billy Tauzin and Ranking Member John Dingell of the 
Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Michael Bilirakis and 
Ranking Member Sherrod Brown of the Subcommittee on Health, as well as 
Congresswomen Kelly and Capps, original cosponsors of this legislation.

                          ____________________