Advocates will meet with lawmakers to discuss legislation to strengthen the nation’s nursing workforce pipeline and support the safety and mental wellbeing of healthcare workers.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over two dozen representatives of the Healthcare Workforce Coalition – a coalition of healthcare stakeholders from across the healthcare continuum – are on Capitol Hill today to advocate for commonsense solutions focused on protecting and enhancing the nation’s healthcare workforce. In meetings with lawmakers and staff in the U.S. House and Senate, the Coalition will highlight bipartisan legislation including the Train More Nurses Act, Save Healthcare Workers Act, Reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Provider Protection Act, and the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act.
As communities across the country, particularly underserved and rural areas, face critical workforce shortages, providers are feeling burnt out and patients are struggling to access care. Nearly 100,000 registered nurses were estimated to have left the field during the COVID-19 pandemic due to stress, burnout, and retirements and roughly 800,000 nurses intend to leave the profession by 2027. Eighty percent of rural America is medically underserved and nearly 70% of rural and partially rural counties have been designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas. At the same time, nursing schools are struggling to admit qualified students who can fill these gaps because of insufficient faculty and capacity constraints.
Congress must act to address these challenges and increase patients’ access to care. Specifically, the Healthcare Workforce Coalition will meet with lawmakers to seek support for the following bipartisan bills:
- Train More Nurses Act: Within the healthcare workforce shortage, nursing shortages are among the most concerning. To create a more robust nursing workforce pipeline, the Train More Nurses Act (S. 547/H.R. 5052) would direct the US Secretary of Health and Human Services and the US Secretary of Labor to conduct a review of nursing grant programs to find ways to increase faculty at nursing schools, especially in underserved areas. It would also strengthen pathways for Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) to become Registered Nurses (RNs), fostering career development and ultimately enhancing patient outcomes.
- Save Healthcare Workers Act: Over half of healthcare professionals worry about safety in the workplace and many healthcare workers consider leaving their jobs due to workplace violence, amplifying workforce shortages. The Save Healthcare Workers Act (S. 1600/H.R. 3178) aims to protect hospital employees from violence and intimidation in their workplace. In addition to imposing severe penalties like fines and imprisonment on those who assault healthcare employees, the SAVE Act will also provide grants to hospitals to enhance security measures and coordinate with law enforcement.
- Reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Provider Protection Act: Healthcare workers nationwide have a higher risk of dying from suicide than the general population, indicating an obligation to protect these individuals and enhance mental health measures for these frontline professionals. The Reauthorization Act for the Dr. Lorna Breen Act (S. 266/H.R. 929) addresses this mental health crisis by expanding Lorna Breen grants to continue funding mental health training, peer support, and crisis intervention programs in healthcare settings.
- Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act: If passed, the bipartisan HWRA (S. 2759/H.R. 5283) will help address the US healthcare workforce crisis by recapturing 25,000 unused immigrant visas for nurses and 15,000 unused immigrant visas for physicians that Congress has previously authorized. Ultimately, the bill would help fill critical workforce gaps and alleviate severe shortages in the nation’s healthcare system—all without displacing a single American worker. This legislation is essential to ensure patient access to healthcare services in an era of rising demand for care.