Recognizing National Nurses Week on May 6 through May 12, 2009.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 192, recognizing national nurses week on May 6 through May 12, 2009. I thank Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson for introducing this important resolution which recognizes and acknowledges the dedication of our nursing community across America.

This resolution is important because nurses represent the largest single component of the healthcare profession, with an estimated 2.9 million registered nurses in the United States. In Texas alone, according to the Texas Board of Nursing, there are 162,163 registered nurses through out the state.

In Harris County, the county encompassing my district, there are 24,480 registered nurses. Nurses are patient advocates and act fearlessly to protect the lives of those under their care. Nurses care for patients, but participate in a wide range of needed scientific research, and fight cultural and ethnic disparities, and treat all patients as equals. Nurses are also teachers, not only to future generations of nurses, but to the public, educating us on health and safety.

It is necessary that we acknowledge the outstanding contribution to society by nurses because nurses can be strong allies to Congress as they help inform, educate and work closely with legislators to improve the education, retention, recruitment and practice of all nurses and, more importantly, the health and safety of the patients they care for.

Federal and State support is needed to enhance existing programs to educate nursing students at all levels, to increase the number of faculty members to educate nursing students, to create clinical sites and have the appropriately prepared nurses to teach and train at those sites, to create educational opportunities to retain nurses in the profession, and to educate and train more nurse research scientists who can discover new nursing care models to improve the health status of the Nation's diverse population. The services nurses can provide are linked directly to the availability, cost and quality of healthcare services, which are at the center of health reform discussions.

In a year where health care reform is a top priority, it is significant to acknowledge that 33 national nursing organizations have endorsed a consensus statement from the Nursing Community that complement five of President Obama's tenets outlined in his Transforming and Modernizing America's Health Care System plan. Nurses protect families and financial health and make health care coverage affordable by providing cost-effective care at all levels of nursing practice. Nurses play a key role in the success of the President's aim for universality. Without a strong investment in the nursing workforce, the goal of reaching universality will be unattainable, particularly for rural communities and underserved populations. When the Administration and Congress invest in prevention and wellness, existing practice and care models, such as the Nurse Family Partnership, derived from nursing science will serve as national exemplars for wellness and prevention. The strength of the nursing profession lies in its contribution to improve patient safety and quality care. Nursing care is critical to improving healthcare quality and safety to ensure better patient outcomes.

Unfortunately, there is a continuing shortage of professional Registered Nurses. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing released preliminary survey data showing that enrollment in entry level baccalaureate nursing programs increased by only 2 percent from 2007 to 2008. While this makes the eighth consecutive year of enrollment growth, the annual increase in student capacity in 4-year nursing programs has declined sharply since 2003 which enrollment was up 16.6 percent. Due to a lack of nurse educators over 100,000 qualified nursing candidates have been rejected to nursing programs across the U.S. according to the National League for Nursing most recent survey. These shortages have caused the current nurse educators to work on average more than 57 hours per week as well as dedicated nurses to work longer hours and care for more acutely ill patients. The nursing field needs more money invested in its future.

It is only fitting that the end of National Nurses Week is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. She once said ``I attribute my success to this--I never gave or took any excuse.'' So today in her honor we must give no excuse to keep from honoring the noble and important profession of nursing, if anything we should fight to improve its condition because with improved nursing, and funds for nurses, we get a better health care system. I urge my colleagues to pass this resolution and acknowledge and support our country's nurses.

Madam Speaker, let me thank my colleagues who are managing this bill today.

It really is a delight and a privilege to offer a resolution recognizing National Nurses Week, which is May 6 through today, the 12th.

I began my professional career as a nurse and as a registered nurse with a master's degree; I have 15 years of hands-on patient-care experience. I served as the chief psychiatric nurse at the VA Hospital in Dallas. During times of war, we see so many men and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They need prompt and compassionate care.

Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that an American soldier in Baghdad shot five of his fellow comrades. The attack took place in a clinic for soldiers who were seeking help for stress. Another such incident occurred last September.

I have great empathy for our brave members of our military who suffer from emotional distress, and I admire the nurses and other health care professionals who work to assist them. Nurses are a key component of our health care system; and whether on the battlefield, at sea, in a skilled nursing facility or in a hospital, the care that a nurse provides is very, very valuable.

Nurses are the patient's primary advocate. They are intelligent people who most often have to make quick decisions in an effort to save the life of a patient. Nurses are tough guardians. They often do their work under duress and under difficult conditions.

My colleagues, Congresswoman Lois Capps and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, are also nurses. They have worked with me to promote this resolution, and they are champions in the nursing profession.

I want to thank my many congressional colleagues who cosponsored this resolution honoring nurses. We recognize that although more than 2.9 million registered nurses work in the United States, our Nation continues to suffer from a nursing shortage. Congress should invest in the title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Program to help address this challenge. We cannot do health care reform without addressing the shortage of nursing.

Congress must also increase support for nurse faculty education, particularly for advanced practice nurses and advanced education in nursing. Further, hospitals need to establish valid, reliable and adjustable unit-by-unit nurse staffing plans. These plans should link staff to quality outcomes and should involve direct input of nursing staff based on each area's unique characteristics and needs. The nursing community has provided valuable recommendations on policies to support the nursing profession, and I encourage my colleagues to review these suggestions.

Several nursing organizations were engaged in developing this resolution, and I would like to thank them. They are the American Nurses Association, the Emergency Nurses Association, the National Black Nurses Association, and the National League for Nurses.

Today's resolution honors the good work that all nurses do, the profession that has more patient support than any other. Along with my many supportive colleagues, I want to thank the House leadership for bringing up this important resolution and I urge support for the resolution.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in order to thank my colleague Eddie Bernice Johnson for sponsoring National Nurses Week.

Nurses are America's national heroes. Day after day, they deliver life saving health care in nursing homes, hospitals, community clinics, and public schools across this nation. They deliver our babies, take care of the disabled, and make sure that senior citizens receive the tender loving care and attention they need when they are sick and infirm.

Sadly, too many nurses are working in hospitals, clinics and other health care work settings that are stressful, inhumane, and not conducive to safe patient care. Many nurses experience painful and debilitating work related injuries from lifting patients--injuries that could be avoided if there were mechanical lift devices in hospitals which could safely assist nurses in the lifting of patients.

Nurses across the nation rightfully complain of working too many hours, supervising too many patients at one time, and having to spend endless hours filling out paper work. Much of the paper work is related to private insurance billing.

Many nurses leave the profession early because of stressful and difficult work conditions. This is contributing to a growing nursing shortage in America. Unfortunately, patients across this nation are getting less quality care from nurses because there are simply not enough nurses to provide the care that patients need and deserve. America must address the nursing crisis now, especially as we move towards major health reform.

We must thank President Obama for having the vision and courage to address our dysfunctional health care system by calling for passage of a major health reform bill this year. I believe that creating a national health insurance system would be the most cost effective and humane way to achieve universal health care in America. This is why I have introduced HR 676, ``The United States National Health Insurance Act,'' in every Congress since 2003.

We as a nation must ensure that we have the best trained and optimal number of nurses possible. However, if we are to achieve this very important goal, the President and the Congress must have a ``federal national nurse policy'' that reflects the needs of the nursing profession.

This can be best accomplished by having members of Congress and the President listen to the many challenges that our over worked nurses experience every day, and then passing meaningful federal nurse reform legislation that can substantively address the nursing shortage in this country, and improve their work conditions.

Our nurses deserve the best work conditions possible, and so do the millions of patients they care for in America.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 192--Recognizing National Nurses Week. I'd like to particularly thank my colleague Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas for offering this resolution, and to honor my colleagues Representative Lois Capps of California and Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York, three Members of Congress who worked as nurses before holding public office and who continue to be strong advocates for nurses and patients.

The men and women who work as nurses in the United States are some of the most important--but also some of the most unsung--heroes who serve in our communities. We all probably have a personal story about a nurse who either cared for us or a close family member or friend during a time of need. They are superb in their skill sets; tender in the care they provide; and deserving of our utmost respect.

When you become a nurse, the conventional wisdom and continuing tradition is that you go into the field because you have a genuine interest in and passion for helping those in need. You don't do it for the money; you don't do it for the glamour; and you certainly don't do it for the hours.

But it's time to encourage men and women to pursue a career in nursing by showing them that we respect and value the careers of the approximate 3 million nurses across America. We can do this by increasing pay for nurses and by making nursing education more affordable and more accessible.

We're facing an unprecedented nursing shortage across this country that could lead to a shortfall of up to 500,000 nurses by 2025. And nursing isn't a job that can be downsized or outsourced. That is why I support the inclusion of $215 million for the Nursing Workforce Development program in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget and why I worked to help secure $500 million in the stimulus package for training programs for primary care providers, including nurses.

In my own district in California I fought to keep the Registered Nursing Program alive and funded at L.A. Southwest College, and am happy to announce that this year they will receive a $285,000 appropriation to improve nursing education through state-of-the-art technology.

Nurses are a precious asset we cannot afford to be without.

With major health care reform on the horizon, we must remember that nurses will be at the center of any meaningful reform. Let us honor their service, their dedication, and their profession by passing this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague and physician from the Virgin Islands for yielding to me. I rise in strong support of H. Res. 192, a resolution in recognition of National Nurses Week.

I too would like to thank Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson for introducing this bill, along with Representative Lois Capps and Representative Carolyn McCarthy, all nurses in this body, for sponsoring this resolution and for their steadfast commitment to honoring nurses and highlighting the importance of estimated 2.9 million nurses to our health care system.

As we move forward with health care reform discussions, we must continue to listen to nurses. Nurses will fight for improving patient access to quality care. And it is nurses who will advocate for more preventive and primary care providers to help reduce the need for costly inpatient care. And it is nurses who will fight for appropriate nurse staffing ratios to reduce medical error and to cut down on the number of readmissions to hospitals.

We all know about the shortages in primary care professionals, especially nurses right now; and as we move toward health care reform and bring more people into the system, we certainly are going to need more nurses.

There are about 500,000 nurses out there who have left the profession for many, many reasons, but one of them is because they have very stressful working conditions.

So as we celebrate National Nurses Week, we need to think about that. One of those issues is to reduce the number of patients that each nurse has to take care of these days. The patient/nurse ratio is so high, there are so many patients that they have to take care of, that many have just said, Can't do it.

And so I think the best way we honor nurses is to look at ways we make conditions in the hospitals, in their workplace, much more amenable to them because they are the frontline people.

Right now when our loved ones have to go to the hospital, many feel they need to have an advocate with them because when the button is pushed calling for the nurse, sometimes they are not there, not because they don't want to be there, but because they are in the next room or the next room and not able to get to their patients.

Madam Speaker, it is important that Congress recognize and celebrate our nurses during National Nurses Week and throughout the year, and throughout the years to come. Our nurses stand up for us, and I am honored to stand up for them.