Gillibrand: We can’t fix health care without nurses
ALBANY – It’s a good time to go into nursing.
Southern Tier hospitals and health care providers currently have a nursing vacancy rate of more than 7 percent and could need as many as 5,000 additional nurses over the next 10 years in order to fill the void.
Central New York faces the highest nursing shortage in the state with a 14.7 rate. Statewide, the vacancy rate is 8.6 percent.
New York Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand released those statistics in a conference call to reporters yesterday. She said it’ll take about 105,000 additional nurses to meet New York’s health care needs over the next decade.
“We can’t fix health care in the country if we don’t address America’s nursing shortage,” the Senator said.
While the nursing population is aging – with 20 percent 55 years or older – the real root of the shortage is that nursing institutions don’t have the faculty and space for training new nurses.
Gillibrand hopes to bring a sense of urgency to fix what she described as a “chronic problem” by backing federal legislation that would develop and expand nursing education. She supports legislation that would provide about $515,000 million in grants to nurses to take on training positions and for institutions to provide more nurse education, training and research programs.
She said $300 million of the legislation is already provided for within the Obama Administration’s Economic Recovery Plan. A $215 million request from Washington would be through 2010 and represent an increase in the nursing workforce development funds that New York receives annually.
“We have been getting flat funding for nursing workforce development over the last three years. I’m an advocate for spending on this issue much more than that,” she said.
“The core of this problem is with the schools. We really need trainers,” she said.
The Senator said she planned to focus on this aspect of the president’s health care policy over the next several months.
Southern Tier hospitals and health care providers currently have a nursing vacancy rate of more than 7 percent and could need as many as 5,000 additional nurses over the next 10 years in order to fill the void.
Central New York faces the highest nursing shortage in the state with a 14.7 rate. Statewide, the vacancy rate is 8.6 percent.
New York Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand released those statistics in a conference call to reporters yesterday. She said it’ll take about 105,000 additional nurses to meet New York’s health care needs over the next decade.
“We can’t fix health care in the country if we don’t address America’s nursing shortage,” the Senator said.
While the nursing population is aging – with 20 percent 55 years or older – the real root of the shortage is that nursing institutions don’t have the faculty and space for training new nurses.
Gillibrand hopes to bring a sense of urgency to fix what she described as a “chronic problem” by backing federal legislation that would develop and expand nursing education. She supports legislation that would provide about $515,000 million in grants to nurses to take on training positions and for institutions to provide more nurse education, training and research programs.
She said $300 million of the legislation is already provided for within the Obama Administration’s Economic Recovery Plan. A $215 million request from Washington would be through 2010 and represent an increase in the nursing workforce development funds that New York receives annually.
“We have been getting flat funding for nursing workforce development over the last three years. I’m an advocate for spending on this issue much more than that,” she said.
“The core of this problem is with the schools. We really need trainers,” she said.
The Senator said she planned to focus on this aspect of the president’s health care policy over the next several months.
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