Back in March, the factoring blog posted about the nursing shortage in New York City.  Now, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is warning Americans that in conjunction with the health care crisis, an imminent nursing shortage is upon us as a nation.  There cannot be health care reform without more nurses in the health care system.  Luckily for New Yorkers and Americans, Senator Gillibrand is taking on this issue.

The main reason for the sudden scarcity is due to many nurses getting ready for retirement.  In Brooklyn and Queens, 19% of the nurses are over the age of 55 and will be ready to retire over the next ten years.  New York City alone will need about 60,000 more nurses over the next ten years if it wants to sustain a quality health care system.

Another problem is the nursing education system.  Qualified applicants are being denied entry into nursing programs across the country due to limited classroom space and insufficient number of faculty.  The College of Staten Island in Staten Island only accepted 125 out of 400 applicants.  While the rejection pool includes unqualified students, a good number of worthy prospects still remains.

Senator Gillibrand has plans to circumvent this potential disaster.  To increase nursing faculty, she plans to offer 100% loan repayment to nurses who complete a nursing program and choose to come back and teach at nursing institutions.  In addition, she plans to give out grants to nursing education programs so that they can accept more students.  Lastly, she wants to incentivise nurses to insert themselves into poorer areas of New York.

President Obama has already helped Senator Gillibrand’s third task; part of Obama’s stimulus package included a $300 million grant to the National Health Service Corps, an organization that recruits nurses.

Click here to read the entire article: New York’s Nursing Shortage (Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand)