FROM THE PRESIDENT

In connection with National Nurses Week May 6 through 12, this issue of Texas Medical Center News pays special tribute to nursing professionals comprised of students, practitioners, faculty and staff of the 43 Texas Medical Center institutions.

Nursing demographics are changing with the times. Over the past 20 years, while women have traditionally been associated with the nursing field, participation of males in nursing has risen 97 percent. In addition, the number of employed registered nurses, nearly 2.2 million, has nearly risen to meet the numbers of registered nurses in the population, with 2.6 million.

I would like to take a moment to mention the severe nursing shortage that America is currently confronting.

Thanks to improvements in the health care industry and technological advances, the population is living longer. As we become more dependent on health care, the nursing population is aging as well. The average age of nurses is 44, and current estimates indicate that by 2020, most of the nurses currently working in the field will be retired.

In Texas alone, approximately 27,000 more nurses are needed. To combat the shortage, Dr. Lynn Wieck, president-elect of the Texas Nurses Association and member of the nursing faculty at Texas Woman's University in the Texas Medical Center, says TWU has consistently and persistently put nurses into the workforce. The university annually graduates approximately 250 baccalaureate nurses.

One way we can ensure that the nursing population rises is by offering competitive salaries. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that average nurse salaries have hardly changed since 1992. They have only been adjusted for inflation. Last year, the average salary of a full-time registered nurse was $46,782.

Additionally, in February of this year state Sen. Mike Moncrief, Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, introduced Senate Bill 572 - the Nursing Shortage Reduction Act of 2001. The act is designed to do the following:

• Provide funds to increase enrollment capacity in nursing schools to 10,000 students over the next five years, which would double the current nursing school capacity;
• Create a grant program for nursing schools to enroll additional students, retain faculty and encourage innovation to recruit and retain students;
• Allow the Higher Education Coordinating Board to receive and spend grant funds from other sources, such as public donations;
• Allow students who move to Texas to pursue a master's degree, or higher, in nursing to obtain in-state tuition if they demonstrate intent to teach in a Texas nursing program;
• Establish a loan repayment scholarship, or matching fund grant for students who intend to practice nursing in a part of the state where nurses are needed or who intend to join nursing faculty;
• Take a proactive step in creating a Nursing Workforce Data Center to track trends in the nursing profession and help us to address shortages before they reach the crisis level.

The Nursing Shortage Reduction Act is supported by the Texas Nurses Association, the Texas Hospital Association and the Greater Houston Partnership, among others. We really need everybody who cares about nursing to work toward getting reasonable state support for nursing education and practice.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/05_01_01/page_23.html