Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 748 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a nursing education loan program to provide loans for eligible nursing students in an amount up to $10,000 per student per academic year.

Your Committees received testimony supporting this measure from the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Hawaii Nurses' Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME, Local 152, AFL-CIO, and Hawaii Pacific Health. The University of Hawaii at Hilo submitted testimony supporting the intent of this measure but was unable to support it due its possible adverse impact on the proposed Executive Biennium Budget.

Your Committees find that a nursing shortage exists and will continue into the next decade unless actions are taken to reverse the trend. It is anticipated that Hawaii will need to produce four hundred nurses each year for the next fifteen years to replace the number of nurses leaving the profession. Nurse shortages directly reduce the availability and quality of all health care services thereby threatening the health and welfare of the public. The State must make every effort to ensure that Hawaii's residents have adequate and high quality healthcare at all times. Your Committees find that the nursing shortage is a public health crisis and that this measure provides an important component to resolving this issue.

Your Committees further recognize that as the State implements policies and initiatives to increase nursing student enrollment, including this measure, there must be a corresponding increase in the number of nursing faculty. Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by adding an appropriation for the hiring of additional nursing faculty. The appropriation amount is unspecified for determination by your Committee on Ways and Means.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 748, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 748, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.