May 8, 2008 7:51 pm US/Eastern
Nurses Urge Action From Congress To Ease Shortage
WASHINGTON (WJZ) ―
Nurses and nursing students took a break from hospitals and classrooms to give Congress a dose of medicine.
Alex DeMetrick reports millions of federal dollars are being cut just as a nursing shortage is about to explode.
Dutch Ruppersberger wouldn't be a congressman if the staff at Shock Trauma hadn't saved his life after an accident.
"It's personal for me because my life was saved in Maryland Shock Trauma. If it weren't for nurses, nurses took care of me everyday, I would not be here today," said Ruppersberger.
Thursday it was nurses and nursing students filling hallways on Capitol Hill turning to Ruppersberger and the rest of Congress for help.
The reason is a growing shortage of nurses.
As demand draws veteran nurses away from teaching posts back into hospitals, schools can't expand class size. Students who do get in face tuitions up to $50,000 a year.
That brought the nurses to Capitol Hill lobbying for the tuition help and instructor pay, which was cut by President Bush.
"Without the continued funding of the nurse workforce development programs, many of us are unable to pursue and even continue our nursing education," said Hopkins nursing student Amber Close.
Step back into the operating or emergency room from a teaching job, and a nurse makes $25,000 more a year. This means new nurses might just stay.
If current numbers hold, it's projected Maryland alone will be short 18,000 nurses by the year 2020.
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