On the recordMay 10, 2010
I wish to join my colleague from the State of Oregon in speaking on behalf of nurses across America. We know that with the baby boom generation, we are going to need more nurses than ever, and with these nurses, we will have the professional medical care we need across this Nation, but we better get busy. We are falling behind. We don't graduate enough nurses now to take care of the anticipated needs, and we have to change that. Sadly, in many instances we have been poaching nursing talent from other poor nations around the world. Filipino nurses in Chicago play a major role at many hospitals, particularly inner-city hospitals, and nurses from other parts of the world. Many times, the Philippines, for example, generates more medical professionals and expects they will serve overseas, but some places in Africa lose their best medical professionals to higher and more predictable pay in places such as the United States, England, France, and Germany. So we have to reach a point where we are graduating more nursing students each year. Last year in Illinois, 2,000 qualified nursing applicants were turned down because we didn't have the capacity in our nursing schools. We don't have enough nursing faculty, enough clinical opportunities. We need to really focus on that.
