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ANA Urges You to E-mail Your Congressional Delegation Today
On December 20, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Nurse Reinvestment Act. Although the bills differ in some respects, both would authorize loan repayment programs and scholarships for nursing students, and public service announcements to encourage more people to enter the nursing profession (for a full summary of the two bills, click here for PDF document). ANA is concerned that Congress has failed to take action to merge and enact the Nurse Reinvestment Act. The longer this action is delayed, the more likely this bill will be lost among other Congressional priorities. We need your help to urge Congress to make the final push to enact the Nurse Reinvestment Act.
Do not delay! Now is the time to contact your delegation.
Here is how to E-mail:
- To write your Representative, go to http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html select the name of your representative, go to their website and follow the directions for E-mailing a message.
- To write to your Senators, go to http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm select the Senators for your state, go to their websites and follow the directions for E-mailing a message.
- Important! Don't forget to include your mailing address in the text of the message! This indicates that you are a constituent and allows your Representative and Senators to respond to you.
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Message to Congress:
The growing nursing shortage will soon reach critical proportions. Today, facilities are having problems meeting patient care needs. Congress must act now to support nurses and attract more people into the nursing profession. Do not delay - conference and enact the Nurse Reinvestment Act (H.R. 3487, S. 1864) now. |
Additional background you may want to include in your message:
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RNs comprise the largest group of health care professionals in the United States, with more than 2.2 million nurses employed in health care. Nurses literally underpin the health care system.
- Numerous studies have shown that patient care is improved, and negative health outcomes are adverted, when patients receive sufficient nursing care.
- A fundamental shift has occurred in the Registered Nurse (RN) workforce over the last two decades. As occupational opportunities for young women have expanded, and the working conditions for nurses has deteriorated, the number of young people entering nursing has declined.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will be openings for more than one million nursing positions between now and 2010. At the same time, the aging of the U.S. population - lead by the retirement of the baby boom generation - is expected to cause an increase in demand for nursing services. Therefore, a number of studies published by the General Accounting Office, Congressional Research Service, and the Journal of the American Medical Association project a national, systemic shortage of RNs beginning in the next few years.
- Already the nursing shortage has been tied to changes in patient care, causing emergency department overcrowding, emergency department diversions, increased wait times for surgery, discontinued patient care programs or reduced service hours, delayed discharges, and canceled surgeries. Patient care will continue to suffer as the shortage worsens.
 Return to News/Action Alerts page.
Return to the Legislative Branch page.
Return to Government Affairs.
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