Political Quotes

“we are engaged in one of the longest conflicts in American history, and the need for qualified nurses in military medical facilities is increasing. Tragic stories of injured veterans returning from war and heart-wrenching images on television remind us that the military needs qualified nurses. Unfortunately, the military faces the same difficulty recruiting and retaining nurses that civilian medical facilities are facing. Neither the Army nor the Air Force has met nurse recruitment goals since the 1990s. In 2004, the Navy Nurse Corps fell 32 percent below its recruitment target, while the Air Force missed its nurse recruitment target by 30 percent. At a Senate appropriations hearing earlier this year, Nurse Corps leaders pointed to a serious shortage of military nurses. The Army, Navy, and Air Force each have a 10-percent shortage of nurses, with shortages reaching nearly 40 percent in some critical specialties. Civilian hospitals face similar challenges. According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, 72 percent of hospitals experienced a nursing shortage in 2004. The shortage is growing. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, found that in 2000 this country was 110,000 nurses short of the number, both civilian and military, necessary to adequately provide quality health care. By 2005, the shortage had doubled to 219,000. By 2020, we will be more than 1 million nurses short of what we need for quality health care.”