The Nurse Training and Retention Act
The nurse training and Retention Act of 2007 was a piece of legislation sponsored by Illinois Senator Richard Durbin designed to assist incumbent ancillary healthcare workers in becoming nurses and funding current nurses’ further training. The Act would allow nurses to become specialized or earn advanced degrees. These certifications would help nurses become nursing faculty.
Due to the age of the baby boomers, in the next ten years, there will be more need than ever for trained nurses. Additionally, there has been an 18% growth in population, adding an even greater number of patients to a hospital’s workload. Yet an ever-increasing number of qualified applicants to nursing schools are being denied as a result of the lack of faculty and resources.
Furthermore, nurses are dissatisfied with their work and environment, and more nurses are leaving the profession than entering. The average age of nurses is growing steadily, pushing the mean towards nurses on the verge of retirement. This causes an immediate deficit in addition to the gap already expected.
Within ten years, statisticians have calculated the nursing shortage may increase to over one million. The Nurse Training and Retention Act would counteract this shortage, providing a program that would help keep current nurses in the workforce while drawing in new nurses.
The Act would achieve funding by awarding Department of Labor grants to hospitals and programs that propose further training for healthcare workers. This would help lower healthcare workers gain the training to become nurses, and would help current nurses climb the corporate ladder to nursing faculty by allowing them the opportunity to finance higher education. This program would be even more effective with the increased acceptance of virtual training whereby prospective students could attend online nursing schools in their free time without having to leave their day job.
The nurse Training and Retention Act is effective because it targets those most likely to become nurses: those already working in healthcare. These workers are skilled in the area, have an interest in medicine, and many lack only the degree needed to perform nursing procedures. Healthcare workers necessitate lessened time in orientation due to experience; funding these workers will lessen the strain placed on nurses by adding to the workforce quickly and effectively. After becoming nurses, these workers are known to be better acquainted with a medical environment, and respond to patient needs more rapidly than nurses straight from school.
When nurses are better satisfied in their job, they are likely to work harder and more effectively. The benefits trickle down to the patients: a well-staffed and happy workforce is less apt to make avoidable mistakes in the treatment of patients. By providing scholarships and grants to help the next generation of nurses, hospitals and government can act against the nursing shortage. An attractive job environment compounded with satisfied employees in one of the only remaining American industries experiencing growth is one of the best advertisements for becoming a nurse.
However, the Nurse Training and Retention Act of 2007 ended in referral to a committee. Due to the time of introduction, the bill was cleared at the end of the Congress session. Senator Durbin has reintroduced the bill in 2009, and New York Representative Carolyn McCarthy has submitted a similar bill. Both are being discussed in committee.
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