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Roll Back: President's FY 2006 Budget Cuts $1 Million from Nurse Workforce Development Programs

Not every rollback comes with a smiley. Particularly this one — the President’s FY 2006 Budget Cut. The President’s budget that was submitted to Congress is not exactly making the nursing world smile. It provides $150 million for nursing workforce development programs including the Nurse Reinvestment Act. A whopping $1 million cut over the FY 2005 funding level. The proposed funding is most definitely insufficient to address the increasing nursing shortage. It is what you may call the cause and effect syndrome. In all likelihood, it is only making the situation worse.

The proposal includes nearly $32 million for loan repayments and scholarships (the same as FY 2005) and $8 million for geriatric nurse education and nurse faculty loan-repayment programs ($1 million cut). Nurse faculty recruitment is critical to increase the capacity of the nation's nursing schools. More than 26,000 qualified applicants were turned away from entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs in 2004, mainly due to insufficient numbers of faculty.

The proposed budget also reflects some redistribution of funding between basic and advanced nursing education. Organizations like The American Nurses Association (ANA) have mixed feelings about the same. Not only is the timing wrong to cut the chips, it will inevitably contribute to the shortage in the industry, which is expected to touch over 275,000 RNs by 2010.

Thankfully it’s not all bad news, there is a silver lining —the president's proposed funding level includes $21 million for nursing diversity programs (an increase of $5 million) and $139 million for the National Institute of Nursing Research (a $1 million increase).

As much as the ANA agrees with theneed to support programs aimed at attracting new people into the nursing profession, they feel that it should not be at the expense of programs that retain and support the nurses there are.

News is always good or bad, at times it may bring with it a smile and at others, a pinch of salt should do it. One can only hope things start looking up the next year.

Footnotes:

1. About ANA: The American Nurses Association is a full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses (RNs) through its 54 constituent member associations.