Heather Cashwell
University of Phoenix
Healthy Communities Theory and Practice
NUR/405
Kim Hall
November 9, 2015 Letter to Congress
Nov 9, 2015
US Senator Chuck Grassley
Hart Senate Office Building, Room 135
120 Constitution Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20510-1501
Dear US Senator Grassley,
I am writing to ask you to cosponsor, H.R. 2713, the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act (Congress.Gov, 2015). Registered Nurses (RNs) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) play an integral role in the delivery of primary care and help to bring the focus of our health care system back where it belongs -- on the patient and the community. To support these goals, Nursing Workforce Development programs, authorized under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 296 et seq.), fund the education, recruitment, and retention of qualified nurses to meet our nation's health care demands (Congress.Gov, 2015). …show more content…
These programs support nursing education at all levels, from entry-level preparation through graduate study. Title VIII programs are invaluable to institutions that educate nurses for practice in rural and medically underserved communities (Congress.Gov, 2015). Working in a rural community in Iowa, I can honestly say that there is a shortage of nurses in these areas due to the pay is less than the urban counter parts; these rural hospitals and public/community health services operate with high nurse turn over rates and difficulty recruiting RN’s and APRN’s due to location and lack of services that can be sustained