Congressional Negotiators Reach Agreement on Legislation To Address National Nursing Shortage

House and Senate negotiators on July 19 reached an agreement on the two chambers' different versions of a bipartisan bill passed late last year that would establish scholarships and other programs to address the nation's nursing shortage, the Fresno Bee reports (O'Rourke, Fresno Bee, 7/20). The Nurse Reinvestment Act (S 1864 or HR 3487) would establish a National Nurse Service Corps to provide scholarships and loans to nursing students who agree to serve in a hospital with a critical shortage of nurses (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/2). In addition, the legislation would establish outreach programs to encourage more individuals to enter the nursing profession. The bill also would establish a program to train and educate nurses to specialize in care for elderly patients and would "promote more involvement by nurses in organizational and clinical decision-making," Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said. Dan Boston, a Federation of American Hospitals analyst, said that the bill would for the first time allow nurses at for-profit hospitals to receive forms of federal aid "under favorable terms previously unavailable." Debbie Campbell, director of government affairs for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, said that the scholarship and loan provisions in the bill "should encourage nurses to get advanced degrees to fill a shortage of nursing instructors," adding, "This legislation will be a major stimulus to solve the nursing shortage." Congressional aides predicted that the bill would pass in the House and Senate this week and would move to President Bush for consideration before the August recess (O'Rourke, Fresno Bee, 7/20).