Nurse Training Fund Bill Gets NYSNA Cheer

By HOWARD MEGDAL

The New York State Nurses Association praised a new bill sponsored by U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton that would provide Federal funding to nurse training programs if additional faculty members are hired.

HILLARY CLINTON: Act before crisis hits.

"By 2014, it is estimated that there will be a need for 1.2 million new and replacement nurses in the U.S.," Ms. Clinton said. "New York has faced a shortage and given current projections this shortage will likely increase. We may be facing a nursing shortage today, but we are setting ourselves up for a nursing crisis if we don't address this issue now."

Aimed At Shortage

The measure would provide grants to universities with nursing programs in an effort to service the 3,000 people Ms. Clinton estimated get turned away from nursing school each year in New York State alone, and begin to shore up what she described as "an 11-percent shortage" of nurses in the state.

"The Clinton bill is something we definitely like," NYSNA Communications Director Nancy Webber said in an Oct. 4 interview. "She's working to get some grants for nursing faculties - we certainly need people to teach them. Nursing programs all over the country have indicated that they have far more people wanting to study than they can admit, and that's because they don't have enough faculty to teach them." Other aspects of the proposal include funding for rural communities to enhance rural nurse training programs, along with across-the-board improvements in recruitment, scholarships, educational preparation, online and accelerated doctoral programs.

In addition to NYSNA, the bill is endorsed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, the Brooklyn Nursing Partnership and the New York State Area Health Education Center System.