Governmental Affairs

ASPAN Governmental Affairs Update August 2002

ANSR Alliance

  • Americans for Nursing Shortage Relief (ANSR) was an alliance formed in 2001
  • ASPAN was invited and joined this alliance in August 2002
  • This alliance is currently composed of 44 organizations that collectively represent nearly all of the Nation’s 2.7 million nurses
  • When first organized, the goal was to get Congress to implement a comprehensive set of initiatives to increase the nursing workforce and enhance the flexibility allowed in nursing education and clinical practice
  • This comprehensive approach combined public policy initiatives with nursing association efforts to highlight the rewards of nursing, bring more nurses into the profession, and provide opportunities for professional advancement
  • On April 25, 2001, they released a consensus document--Assuring Quality Health Care for the United States:  Supporting Nurse Education and Training
  • The document outlined the issues that must be addressed in any comprehensive effort to alleviate the Nation’s nursing shortage
  • The document was the largest effort that nursing associations have made collaboratively in trying to pass legislation concerning the nursing shortage
  • The provisions that ANSR advocates include:

  • Increased funding for loan and scholarship programs to bring more young people into nursing, for recruitment and retention of minority nurses, for scholarships, loans, and stipends aimed at developing nursing faculty at schools and universities, for research on the impact of nursing practices on patient outcomes

  • Establishing a National Nurse Corps to serve communities hardest hit by the nursing shortage

  • Adopting tax incentives for employers and for individuals to increase the supply of nurses in the pipeline

  • Creating Department of Labor initiatives to recruit and retain nurses

  • Developing models for collaboration between communities and states to design programs to recruit and retain nurses

  • Improving the process for data collection on the nurse workforce

  • Since ASPAN became involved, we have supported the following:

1.        A letter to key Members of Congress thanking them for their passage of the Nurse Reinvestment Act

2.       FY 2003 Funding Request for the Nurse Reinvestment Act (P.L. 107-205)

3.       A letter to Senators Harkin and Stevens supporting their draft bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 and increase nursing education loan opportunities within the Department of Education

JCAHO Brochure 

  • The Joint Commission:  Assessing the Quality of Care in Hospitals is a brochure available to educate staff
  • This brochure explains:
    • Who is JCAHO
    • What is involved in JCAHO accreditation
    • How an organization becomes accredited
    • What accreditation means to the consumer
    • How the consumer can find out if an organization is accredited
  • The brochure is available at JCAHO website:  www.jcaho.org

 

Budget Deficits Projected To Be Larger

 

  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released new federal budget projections which show even larger than expected budget deficit in FY 2002
  • Projects deficits of $157 billion for FY 2002 and $145 billion in FY 2003 (assuming current tax and spending policies remain unchanged)
  • GOP conservatives in the House are pressing the leadership to move the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee appropriations bill now, but it looks as if they will not act until the second week of September at the earliest
  • www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/washhigh

 Secretary’s Council on Public Health Preparedness 

  • HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced on August 23 the 21 members of the above council
  • Chairperson:  D.A. Henderson, MD
  • The group will “advise the department on appropriate actions to prepare for, and respond to, public health emergencies, including acts of bioterrorism”
  • First meeting was held August 26 and 27 with an agenda that included:
    • Bioterrorism preparedness and response programs
    • State preparedness programs
    • Lessons learned from last fall’s anthrax attacks
    • Research and development efforts
    • Development of new products related to bioterrorism
    • Public health emergency response planning
  • www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/washhigh