FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2011
CONTACT:
Mary McNamara, 301-628-5198
[email protected]
Adam Sachs, 301-628-5034
[email protected]
www.nursingworld.org/rnrealnews/
SILVER SPRING, MD - The American Nurses Association (ANA) is speaking out against the proposed funding cuts to nursing education in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR). The current version of the CR cuts funding for Title VII and VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs by 29% of 2010 levels. These vital programs serve to recruit new nurses into the profession, promote career advancement within nursing and allocate nurses to critical shortage areas. The effects of the current shortage of nursing faculty are especially acute; more than 50 thousand qualified applicants were denied entry to nursing programs last year due to faculty shortages. New research shows that every nurse educator position left vacant could impact health care delivery for 3.6 million patients. As part of its advocacy efforts, ANA was one of 42 of nursing groups to sign on to a letter to House lawmakers opposing the proposed nursing cuts. ANA also opposes plans to defund the implementation of health care reform as part of the Continuing Resolution.
"At a time when the nursing shortage threatens to impact the quality of care, we need to continue to invest in nursing programs," said ANA President Karen A. Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN. "Our patients are our first priority, and without an adequate supply of nurses to provide care, and adequate funding to implement the reforms of the Affordable Care Act, our health care system will not be able to meet its growing demands."
To learn more about ANA's efforts on health care reform implementation, please visit www.rnaction.org/healthcare.
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The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation's 3.1 million registered nurses through its constituent member nurses associations and its organizational affiliates. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights 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.