WASHINGTON – The House and Senate passed a conference report this week to address a national shortage of nurses. Expected to soon be signed into law by President Bush, the Nurse Reinvestment Act:

. Establishes nurse scholarships: expands current programs that offer loan repayment to nurses to include scholarships for nursing students. In exchange for assistance, nurses would agree to serve for a period of time in a health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses.

. Creates comprehensive geriatric training grants for nurses: provide resources to schools of nursing to train nurses of all levels to care for an older population. Such resources can go to development and distribution of curricula, faculty development and offering classes and continuing education.

. Establishes faculty loan cancellation program: provides grants to schools of nursing for faculty loan programs. The schools will then offer loans to advanced degree students with the expectation that they will join a nursing faculty to teach other nurses. As the students fulfill their teaching requirement they will have portions of their loans canceled.

. Creates career ladder grant program: expands current basic nurse training programs to provide grants to establish career ladder programs. These programs will allow health care facilities to help their nursing staff move up through the nursing profession. This demonstrates to prospective nurses that the profession is upwardly mobile.

. Establishes nurse retention and patient safety enhancement grants: expands current basic nurse training programs to provide resources to health care facilities to improve staff management. Facilities will use these funds to increase nurse participation in organizational and clinical decision making.

. Establishes public service announcements: provides for public service announcements to promote the nursing profession, change stereotypes about nurses and advertise public assistance available to people interested in becoming a nurse.

In a press release on the nursing bill, U.S. Rep. John Baldacci explained that without national action the current nursing shortage is expected to be acute within 10 years. He said the average age of employed registered nurses is about 45, and that by 2010 roughly 40 percent of the registered nurse work force will be over 50. Maine’s 2nd District representative also noted that there has been a 41 percent decline in the number of nurses under 30 years of age, and that graduates from nursing programs have declined nearly 14 percent since 1995.