Senate HELP Committee Field Hearing in Rhode Island Addresses National Health Professional Shortage

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a field hearing July 15 at the Warwick, R.I.-based Community College of Rhode Island to discuss the nation's shortage of health care workers, the Providence Journal reports. A panel of physicians, nurses and professors who testified at the hearing said that the nation and Rhode Island face a "shrinking pool of health care workers and an increasing pool of patients," a situation that has sent the health care system "on a collision course for disaster." For example, Rhode Island hospitals reported more than 400 vacant nurse positions last year. Many nurses in the state and across the nation leave their positions at hospitals and home health care organizations for "better paying jobs and less taxing work," Wendy Ladrape, a nurse at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, said. She added, "We must fix the underlying problems, not just whitewash the nursing picture, for as fast as educators can help to produce new nurses, they will be leaving the bedside for more acceptable opportunities." Dr. Joseph Amaral, president of Rhode Island Hospital, said that "endless reams of paperwork generated by Medicare and Medicaid" and an "overall lack of money" at hospitals also have contributed the problem. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a member of the committee, has co-sponsored a bill that would award grants for nurse training programs and fund public service announcements to "boost the profile of nurses." He said, "We have to act now, so we don't wonder what happened to our health care system in the future." Witnesses also testified to the committee about shortages of radiologists and pharmacists, the Journal reports (Corkery, Providence Journal, 7/16).