Card Act

Floor Speech

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to encourage all to join me in recognizing the nurses of America and their commitment to addressing the needs of patients and their families.

Today, on the birthday of Florence Nightingale, we celebrate National Nurses Day. This is appropriate since Florence Nightingale is known as the pioneer of modern nursing. National Nurses Week, which expands May 6 through May 12, focuses on recognizing the integral role nurses play in promoting public health and also highlights the work nurses are doing to improve health care for all Americans.

I know firsthand the critical role that nurses play in providing safe, high quality, and preventive health care. My wife Mary is a bedside nurse, and I am delighted that she has been able to join me today to help put a spotlight on the critical role nurses play in health care.

Whether they work in a hospital, community health center, physician practice, school, home health care, a skilled nursing facility, or other health care setting, nurses create better outcomes for patients.

Nurses are the cornerstone of our country's health care system. Nearly 3 million registered nurses work today in the United States. But even so, our country is facing an 11-year nursing shortage, and that shortage is projected to extend for at least a decade longer. Nurse faculty shortages and a huge and growing burden of tuition debt for nurse training are contributing to the shortage, even as new vacancies for nurse positions open every single day.

The nationwide nursing shortage has caused dedicated nurses to have to work longer hours and care for more patients at the same time. That does not contribute to quality nursing, and we need to address that shortage.

Quality nursing education is critical to ensuring that we have a sufficient number of qualified professionals joining the field. We need to ensure we are training not only the best and brightest to help out our patients but also bringing those nurses to join the ranks of nurse educators.

Providing adequate Federal funding for nursing workforce development programs authorized under title 8 of the Public Health Service Act is critical to ensure a sufficient nurse workforce to meet the growing demand. I am pleased to join a bipartisan group of colleagues in supporting an increased investment in title 8 which has been an effective solution with past nurse shortages. These programs support the education of registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, nurse faculty, and nurse researchers.

Additionally, title 8 programs focus on recruitment and retention, two other distinct areas impacting this shortage.

Over the last 3 years, flat title 8 funding, combined with rising educational and administrative costs, as well as inflation, has significantly decreased the programs' purchasing power. Subsequently, the number of grantees supported by the programs has decreased 43 percent over the past 4 years.

As Congress works to improve our health care system and ensure that every American has access to quality, affordable health care, we must ensure that we have a stable and well-trained nursing force.

We have an obligation to create a health care system that not only works for patients but also works for people at the heart of our patient care--our nurses.

In closing, I want to note that I am soliciting my fellow Senators to join me to form a Senate nursing caucus. The caucus will provide a forum to address issues affecting the nursing community and recognize and advance the important role of nurses in delivering high quality health care.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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