[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 76 (Thursday, May 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   COMMENDING THE HARD WORK OF OUR NATION'S NURSES ON THIS, NATIONAL 
                              NURSES WEEK

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 8, 2008

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to applaud the incredible 
efforts our nurses pour into their grueling workdays, carrying out 
their duties to the great benefit of this country's health and medical 
care system. Together, nurses represent the largest share of health 
care professionals in the field, boasting numbers eclipsing 2,500,000--
but that's becoming increasingly not enough. Facing a shortage that 
demands a million new nurses by 2016, the current crop of professionals 
have shouldered, and will continue to shoulder, the extra work and 
hours of properly caring for our elderly and infirmed. For this, and so 
much more, nurses deserve a generous helping of our gratitude and the 
highest of reverence, not just this next week dubbed ``National Nurses 
Week,'' but all year round.
  We can show them that we care by paying tribute to those nurses 
serving in Iraq and Afghanistan--by bringing them and our heroic troops 
home after a job well done. We can show them that we care by outfitting 
them with a health care system that is affordable, universal, and 
driven less by profits and more by compassion and humanitarianism. We 
can show them that we care by investing in the research, techniques, 
and technologies that promise to one day cure age-old, debilitating 
diseases that plague millions--and not play politics when our citizens' 
livelihoods are at stake.
  The Harlem Hospital Center serves my district as a powerful force for 
social progress, catering to the community's health needs and training 
the next generation's minority and female physicians. The nurses there 
fight the good fight, day in and day out, not often enough rewarded 
with the credit that they deserve. I am honored to praise their 
achievements--and those of their colleagues all across America--this 
week.

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