ANA Commends Congress for Securing Over $20 Million in Additional Funding for Nurse Education Programs

Washington, DC -- The American Nurses Association (ANA) today applauded the U.S. Congress for approving $20 million in new federal funds for nurse education programs, including the Nurse Reinvestment Act, as part of the omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2003. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.

"We are pleased that Congress recognizes the nursing shortage and the need to invest in recruitment and retention," said ANA President Barbara A. Blakeney, MS, APRN,BC, ANP. "These funds will go a long way toward assisting nursing as a profession and will especially help implement the important programs authorized by the Nurse Reinvestment Act."

Blakeney noted that ANA is particularly pleased with the increases to the Nurse Corps provision of the Nurse Reinvestment Act, which will support scholarships and loan repayments for nursing students. Also encouraging, said Blakeney, are the increases in funding for the Magnet, career ladders, geriatric-training grant and faculty-development provisions of the act. "These funding increases, combined with the increases for already existing Diversity and Nurse Education and Practice programs, will go far in advancing the nursing profession," Blakeney noted.

The Nurse Reinvestment Act (PL 107-205), which was signed into law in August 2002, expands authority for existing nursing programs and creates a number of new ones. For example, the new law authorizes scholarships and loan repayments for nursing students who agree to work in shortage areas after they graduate. In addition, the act authorizes public service announcements to promote nursing as a career, loan cancellations for nursing faculty, grants for geriatric nurse education, and grants to encourage nursing best-practices, such as those in the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Recognition Program, for excellence in nursing services.

"We thank Senator Mikulski for her diligence and commitment to securing the necessary funding included in this bill, as well as the other members of Congress who supported it," Blakeney said. "These new nurse education funds will be instrumental in stemming the nation's growing nursing shortage and in boosting the image of this most worthy and rewarding profession."

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ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its 54 constituent associations. ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

2003 press releases

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