Asa Hutchinson: “Today is a day of great significance and a turning point for the future of nursing in our country. We are about to pass…”

“Today is a day of great significance and a turning point for the future of nursing in our country. We are about to pass the final version of the Nurse Reinvestment Act, after months of negotiations between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Eighteen months ago, I held the first hearings in the Senate examining the severity of the nursing shortage and its impact on our health care delivery system. I subsequently worked with Senator Mikulski to introduce S. 721, the Nurse Education and Employment Development Act, which served as a basis for the legislation the Senate is about to pass today. Nurses are the foundation of our Nation's health care system. Our nation has one of the best health care systems in the world; the quality of health care that we have come to expect is a direct result of the hard work and commitment of nurses. However, the profession as a whole is shrinking. Nurses and nurse faculty are retiring or leaving the profession, perhaps for a better paying job, and fewer new nurses are there to replace them. According to recent surveys, working nurses are on average 45 years old. Less than 10 percent of the nurse workforce is under age 30, and just about 5 percent of the workforce consists of men. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that over 560,000 new nursing jobs will be created in the next decade due to continued demand for health care services and the retirement of the Baby Boomers.”