[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 59 (Friday, May 10, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                              NURSES' WEEK

 Mr. CLELAND. Mr. President, this week commemorates the 
contributions of the nursing profession to patients and health care and 
the dedication of those individuals who have chosen nursing. Yet in all 
the years that we have acknowledged how much nurses mean to the 
delivery of health care and our quality of life, we have not done 
enough to ensure the viability of nursing as a profession. The 2001 
American Nurses Association (ANA) National Survey revealed that 715 
hospitals had 126,000 openings for nursing positions and an 11 percent 
vacancy rate. Nursing schools across the country report that enrollment 
has significantly decreased and the ANA also projects that 65 percent 
of present nurses will retire within this decade. These statistics 
signal a nursing crisis and that means a health care crisis for this 
country.
  At both the June 14, 2001, Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing 
on the looming nursing shortage and the June 27, 2001, Governmental 
Affairs Subcommittee hearing on the federal government's role in 
retaining nurses for delivery of federally funded health care services, 
I emphasized an alarming statistic that the federal health sector, 
employing approximately 45,000 nurses, may be the hardest hit in the 
near future with an estimated 47 percent of its nursing workforce 
eligible for retirement by the year 2004. Current and anticipated 
nursing vacancies in all health care settings are attributed in part to 
worsening work place conditions with mandatory overtime and increasing 
patient care workloads.
  I believe today we are facing a widespread and complex challenge with 
this nursing shortage and there are no quick fixes. Congress has passed 
some important measures to help nurses to continue to take safe and 
effective care of their patients and to assist health care facilities 
to recruit and retain needed nurses. Some of these important measures 
will help recruit new nurses and assist with the cost of education, 
like the Nurse Reinvestment Act and S. 937 which I authored and which 
will now permit the transfer of entitlement to educational assistance 
under the Montgomery GI Bill by members of the Armed Forces thus 
allowing spouses and children of eligible service members to use 
transferred GI bill assistance for undergraduate or graduate nursing 
education.
  Additionally, the VA Nurse Recruitment and Retention Enhancement Act 
was signed into law this year and will help to alleviate the 
anticipated VA nursing shortage by addressing working conditions, 
implementing a Nurse Cadet Program to encourage high school students to 
pursue nursing careers as well as other education incentives. I was 
pleased to have played a major role in development and passing this 
measure as well.
  Congress, Federal and State agencies, private and public health care 
organizations are all actively working to develop solutions to the 
looming nursing shortage. We want nurses to know that they do have 
allies who will work with them to find solutions.
  To further demonstrate our support of nurses, I am also proposing 
that the U.S. Postal Service issue a nursing stamp to say, ``Thank you 
for being a Nurse.'' This stamp will help to raise public awareness of 
the nursing crisis and show our support of the nursing profession.
  I ask my colleagues to join with me in a long-term commitment to 
support the nursing profession. I want to say a special ``thank you'' 
to the nurses who were there for me when I was injured in Vietnam. 
These nurses gave me care and hope. I do not care to think of the 
future of health care without these dedicated and knowledgeable 
nurses.

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