Nurse Training and Retention Act of 2007
Posted by Kim on September 29th, 2007 / Print This Post
Proposal For The Nursing Shortage:
(CBS) CHICAGO An Illinois senator introduced some new legislation this week. The plan is to improve the current nursing shortage by providing better career incentives, as CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reports.Norene Brown says she’s worked as a certified nursing assistant for 11 years. Brown says she’s always wanted to be a registered nurse and Senator Dick Durbin’s new legislation, can make her dream a reality.
“What it would do is enable me to advance myself into the next level of nursing, without having to worry about how I’m going to pay for it,” Brown said.
Brown says using the Nurse Training and Retention Act of 2007, would provide her with scholarship money to become a nurse and after 10 years, any loans she took out, would disappear. She says this would be life changing for her.
“With this $8.50 that I’m earning, it’s disrespectful – it really is,” Brown said. “Because I shouldn’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay my bills; I shouldn’t be living from paycheck to paycheck.”
Sen. Durbin says the legislation he introduced earlier this week is aimed at easing the nation’s nursing shortage.
“In just six or seven years, we’re going to be one million nurses short of what America needs – one million nurses,” he said.
Durbin says through the legislation, grants are given to organizations who work with their employees to improve their skills to become nurses. Durbin added, hospitals will be charged $1,500 for each nurse they bring in from overseas.
“We need their help,” Durbin said. “We obviously have this nursing shortage, but we’re going to have a fee attached to bringing these nurses in to provide scholarship funds for home grown American nurses.”
Durbin also says qualified nursing school applicants are being turned away because there are not enough faculty to teach them. A program allowing retired military nurses to pursue graduate degrees to become nursing faculty just won state approval. The senator says the program will help ease the shortage of nursing teachers at universities.
I only wish we had more details. Overall this sounds good but many questions remain unanswered. It’s a great policy directive, but we need the nuts and bolts as well.