WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The Biden administration is committing $100 million to recruit more nurses.
“It really is an opportunity for us to bring more people into the workforce,” Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) administrator Carole Johnson said.
Johnson said nearly $65 million will go towards schools and training programs.
“In many of these programs, we pay things like tuition and stipends, in some we pay child care and the other things that make it hard for people to get this training,” Johnson said.
The other $35 million will help licensed practical nurses become registered nurses and help nursing programs expand their faculty.
“We want to grow a high-quality, robust, nursing workforce for the future by creating career pathways to become nurses,” Johnson said.
However, nursing organizations say while the funding will bring in new nurses, those already in the profession continue to face challenges.
“This of course is just one piece of the overall puzzle in solving our national workforce issue,” American Nurses Association President, Jennifer Mensik Kennedy said.
Kennedy said current nurses still face burnout, unsafe working conditions, and overwhelming workloads.
“We have turnover rates averaging 21% across the country,” she said. “If you have one-fifth of your nurses turning over every year, that’s an unnecessary expense to the healthcare system.”
HRSA says solving those problems will require Congress to approve additional funding in the President’s budget.