Bobby Jindal: “the current bill provides $37.2 million for nurse education and retention at level funding from the last fiscal year.…”

“the current bill provides $37.2 million for nurse education and retention at level funding from the last fiscal year. Nursing is the Nation's largest health care profession, with an estimated 2.9 million active, licensed registered nurses. However, only 212,927 of these RNs received their licenses after 2000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects there will be approximately 1 million new job openings for registered nurses by 2010. In 1980, 26 percent of RNs were under the age of 30. Today, less than 9 percent of RNs are under the age of 30, with the average nurse being 46.8 years of age. In 2004, the highest level of educational preparation for nurses was 17.5 with a diploma, 33.7 percent had an associate degree, 34 percent had a baccalaureate degree, and 13 percent with a master's or doctoral degree. The number of full-time nursing faculty required to fill this nursing gap is approximately 40,000. Currently, however, there are less than 17,000 full-time nursing faculty in the system. The average age of a nursing professor is 52, and the average age of an associate professor is 49. Retirement accounts for about 25 percent of the decline in nurse faculty. In 2005, 81 percent of accredited nursing schools stated they needed additional faculty. Only 350 to 400 nursing students receive doctoral degrees each year.”