Older people require considerably more healthcare services than the young. Nearly 80 million baby boomers are currently entering our Medicare system, bringing their health problems and high healthcare expectations with them. Nursing is the nation's largest healthcare profession, with about 3 million registered nurses nationwide. Even so, for years there has been a shortage of professional nurses to staff hospitals, retirement facilities and private practices. It is estimated that 11 million new nurses will be needed in the upcoming years to avoid a further shortage. The reasons for our nursing shortage include an aging nurse population and not enough young recruits. Employment opportunities for nurses are projected to grow at a faster rate (15%) than all other occupations from 2016 through 2026.

The average age of our nurse population is 44 and many are close to retirement. The nurses working in today’s hospitals are short-staffed, extremely overworked – even before our current pandemic - and many report they are dissatisfied with their job. It is not uncommon for nurses to be “asked” to work 12-hour shifts, sometimes longer. The shortage of nurses is causing some emergency rooms to redirect patients to more distant hospitals. Healthcare advocates claim these conditions result in longer waiting times for treatment, more mistakes by health care providers and more patient deaths. Studies have shown that nurse shortages contribute to nearly a quarter of all unexpected problems that result in death or injury to hospital patients each year.

Proposed Legislation: Reintroduction of S.2639 - Public Health Nursing Act (118th Congress 2023-2024)
Prospective Sponsor: Sen. Jeff Markey (OR)

• I oppose forming current nursing shortage policy and wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Leader John Thune (SD).
• I support amending the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out activities to establish, expand, and sustain a public health nursing workforce by:
  
  1.) Carrying out activities relating to establishing, expanding, and sustaining a public health nursing workforce, including by making grants to State, local, and territorial public health departments for the costs, including wages and benefits, relating to the recruiting, hiring, and training licensed registered nurses.
  
  2.) Giving priority to applicants in areas with populations that have a high rate of chronic disease, infant mortality, or maternal morbidity and mortality; low-income populations, including medically underserved populations; populations residing in health professional shortage areas; populations residing in maternity care health professional target areas; or rural or traditionally underserved populations; and demonstrating a plan for providing services, to the maximum extent practicable, in the language and cultural context more appropriate to individuals expected to be served by the program.
  
  3.) Authorizing $5,000,000,000 in appropriations to carry out this section for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.
  
  And wish to donate resources to the campaign committee of Sen. Jeff Markey (OR) and/or to an advocate group currently working with this issue.