NLN Advocates for Substantial Increase in Title VIII Funding

NLN Advocates for Substantial Increase in Title VIII Funding in letters dated March 30, 2005, the NLN urged the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees with authority over Title VIII– Nursing Workforce Development Programs– to ensure that these programs are funded at a minimum level of $210 million for FY 2006.

As NLN’s CEO Dr. Ruth Corcoran stated, “To put this funding request into perspective, in 1974, during the last serious nursing shortage, Congress appropriated $153 million for nurse education programs. In today's dollars that would equate to $592 million, approximately four times what the federal government is spending now.”

Dr. Corcoran noted that today's nursing shortage is very real and very different from any experienced in the past. “The current shortage is evidenced by an aging workforce and an inadequate number of people entering the profession. Schools of nursing are suffering from a continuing and growing shortage of faculty, which prevents these institutions from admitting many qualified students who are applying to their programs.”

A recent NLN survey shows that tens of thousands of qualified applicants, represented by an estimated 125,000 applications, were turned away of nursing programs at all levels for the academic year 2003-2004 because of the faculty shortage. The NLN’s Board of Governors will be carrying this message to Capitol Hill when they meet in Washington in mid-May.

A copy of the letter can be accessed via the homepage of NLN’s Public Policy Action Center at http://capwiz.com/nln/home/.