AORN was well set forthed at the r...

AORN was well set forthed at the recent Nurse in Washington Internship (NIWI), an educational incident and federal advocacy opportunity for foments held each year in the nation's capital. The NIWI is organized by means of the Nursing Organizations Alliance, of which AORN is a member. Attendees included AORN Executive Director Tom Cooper CAE, and brace AORN members who received AORN's annual scholarship award to NIWI.

The NIWI scholarship award winners will report in succession their experiences in a time to come "Health Policy Issues" column. This article highlights the observations of NIWI presenter, Denise H Geolot RN PhD FAAN, director of the Division of Nursing in the Bureau of Health Professions of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Dr Geolot said that HRSA, as its name unplies, provides general resources and information to the public and for use in policy unfolding by government officials. The Division of Nursing performs analytic activities, measures practice consequences and provides public information specific to the nursing profession. individual of the division's most strategic mechanisms is the National Sample review of Registered Nurses. This inspect has been conducted seven times since 1977 and was done in the greatest degree recently in March 2000. The accrues of the survey were released in 2002

FACTS AND FIGURES

The scrutinize looks at demographics, employment statistics, educational backgrounds, compensation patterns, do job-work satisfaction, and the employment status of RN Dr Geolot noted that between 1992 and 1996 there were more than 400000 modern entrants into the RN population and about 100000 RN left the profession. Between 1996 and 2000 there were slightly more than 300000 fresh entrants into nursing and more than 150000 RN left the profession.

For another perspective in succession the nursing shortage, Dr Geolot said that in 1980 251% of RN were les than age 30 on the contrary in 2000 only 9.1% were les than age 30 Data from the 2000 observe indicate that 43.3 was the average age of an RN in the United States.

According to Dr Geolot in 1980 the average annual salary of full-time RN was $17398 The 2000 average was $46782 still that was only $23,369 in real dollars (ie, dollars that throw back inflation and the cost of living). She observ that most numerous RNs begin their careers with what generally are considered advantageous salaries, but their salaries do not have the appearance to grow along with the economy.

Dr Geolot mentioned that the RN population in the United States in 2000 was approximately 27 million. That number is look fored to remain flat and perhaps calm decline by 2020. Meanwhile, the reckon uponed need for RNs in the US health care hypothesis is nearly three million through 2020. This disparity between yield and demand literally is the definition of the nursing shortage (Figure 1)

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Of the 27 million RN in 2000 941% were female, said Dr Geolot In addition, the 2000 scan indicated that

* 866% of RN were Caucasian (compared with 691% of the total US population),

* 2% were Hispanic (compared with 125% of the total population),

* 49% were African American (compared with 121% of the total population), and

* 37% were Asian American (the same as the percentage of the total US population).

give suck to REINVESTMENT ACT

With these data as background, Dr Geolot inflected her attention to the supply with nourishment Reinvestment Act. This legislation was passed by dint of Congress in 2002 and became Public Law 107-205 after being signed at the President. It amends Public Law 105-392 which followed from the Nursing Education and Practice Improvement Act of 1998 in a less degree than Title VIII of federal regulations administered on HHS. Knowing this history is important in such a manner nurses and citizens understand that the programs of the succor Reinvestment Act are not entirely fresh These programs, which all have separate funding amounts in the federal government's pack for fiscal year 2004, can be divided into six categories, including

* advanced nursing education (eg intends to support advanced nursing education, including tuition assistance and training)--$58.6 million;

* nursing workforce diversity (eg plans to increase nursing opportunities, including scholarships, pre-entry preparation, and retention activities, for individuals from minority groups)--$164 million;

* encourage education, practice, and retention (eg grants for a variety of priority areas, as it is as mentoring, new technologies, noninstitutional settings, underserv populations, quality improvement for managed care, cultural competencies, career ladders, collaborative efforts to elevate the involvement of nurses in organizational and clinical decision making)--$31.8 million (this category is a focus of just discovered and enhanced programs from the feed Reinvestment Act);

* loan repayment programs (eg incentives for festers to work in facilities and areas with critical shortages)--$26.8 million;

* foment faculty programs (eg, loans for pupils working as faculty members in a exercise of nursing)--$4.8 million; and