Lee Leads Legislation to Address Dire Shortage of Health Care Professionals
WASHINGTON – Amidst a severe health professional shortage in Nevada, Congresswoman Susie Lee (D-NV), Congressman Zach Nunn (R-IA), and Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) introduced the bipartisan Train More Nurses Act to help ensure that federal grant dollars are used efficiently to strengthen nursing career pipelines, expand nursing school faculties, and improve patient health care outcomes.
Nevada has the 5th worst ratio of nurses to served population in the country, meaning that nearly 2 million Nevadans do not have access to the readily available primary medical care they need. Just to reach the national average, Nevada would need over 4,000 registered nurses and nearly 3,500 licensed practical nurses. The lack of nurses available to fill this shortage is due in part to a soaring 8.8% vacancy rate among nursing school faculty members, which creates educational bottlenecks that prevent Nevada from taking full advantage of our potential nursing workforce.
The Train More Nurses Act will tackle this issue head on by ensuring existing federal grant programs are supporting our nursing school faculties and nursing workforce as effectively as possible. It would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor to conduct a review of all federal nursing grant programs to find ways to increase faculty at nursing schools, particularly in underserved areas, and strengthen the pipelines available to students seeking to become a registered nurse. The bill also requires the Secretaries to submit recommendations to Congress to guide future efforts to combat the nursing shortage and improve access to health care for all Nevadans.
“Nurses play such a critical role in delivering quality health care. But in Nevada, nurses are in short supply – by a long shot,” said Congresswoman Lee. “The time is now to invest in educational and training pipelines to make sure we are able to train enough nurses to fill our shortage now, but to ensure we have quality health care delivery in the future. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan legislation to set best practices for making sure that every dollar is going as far as it can in improving career pathways, supporting our nursing schools, and building a health workforce that provides better health care outcomes for all Nevadans.”
This bipartisan, bicameral legislation has already been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mike Braun (R-IN). You can learn more about the Train More Nurses Act here.