From the Office of Senator Kerry

Thursday, May 10, 2001

Washington, DC – Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) today joined Senators Tom Daschle (D-SD), Hilary Clinton (D-NY), Congresswoman Lois Capps and representatives from nursing organizations and providers across the country in a press conference to urge Congressional action on their legislation, the Nurse Reinvestment Act.

At the press conference Senator Kerry said, "Nurses are on the front lines of our nation's health care system. They care for us, for our parents and grandparents. We know the difference they make in our lives - and increasingly we're finding the difference it makes when we can't find enough of these talented and dedicated citizens to do one of the toughest jobs in our society. We are here today to acknowledge what nurses are telling us, to acknowledge the headlines of newspapers in communities around this country, all of which tell this same story -- that we are going to have to offer something more than a band-aid for a system in immediate need of comprehensive relief.

"Our Nurse Reinvestment Act will support the recruitment of new students into our nation's nursing programs. It will expand school-to-career partnerships between health care facilities, nursing colleges, middle schools and high schools to show young people the value of a nursing degree. In addition to recruiting new nurses, our legislation will reinvest in nurses who are already practicing by providing them with education and training at every step of the career ladder and at every health care facility in which they work. "For the first time in history we'll create a National Nurse Service Corps to give scholarships to students who commit to working in a health care facility – urban, suburban or rural– where they're turning away patients due to staff shortages. Nursing is a national calling -- and the National Nurse Service Corps will send qualified nurses to serve and provide the care that patients deserve.

"I think how we respond to that challenge is just as much as anything Congress will do this year. And we will be a country that's good enough and compassionate enough and driven by common sense enough to provide a qualified nurse who can be there when patients need them."