Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Higher Education and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 116 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a nursing scholars program to attract baccalaureate-prepared nurses into master's and doctoral programs that will prepare them for academic careers in nursing.

Your Committees received testimony from the University of Hawaii School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Hawaii Government Employees Association, The Queens Medical Center, and Healthcare Association of Hawaii. The Department of Taxation provided comments.

This measure is intended to encourage baccalaureate-prepared nurses to enter graduate programs by providing the financial security to allow them to decrease the amount of paid work they undertake while in the program. This will not only decrease financial worries, but will empower students to be successful.

Nurses are primary caregivers of patients in settings such as hospitals and long-term care facilities, so a nurse shortage will be damaging to health care quality. It is imperative for a sufficient number of Hawaii residents to be educated to become nurses.

Hawaii's registered nurse workforce is aging. The 2005 projected shortage of registered nurses is 1,518, and this is expected to grow to 2,267 by 2010.

Providing assistance to students is an important part of a multifaceted response to the nursing shortage. This measure provides an incentive and added opportunity for men and women of the State to enter a graduate nursing program which will give them the educational preparation to teach nurses.

Your Committees find that the shortage of registered nurses will threaten the health and welfare of Hawaii's citizens. Hawaii's nursing schools are turning away applicants. One of the primary reasons for this is a lack of qualified faculty. The faculty shortage is attributed to various factors, such as limited financial incentives to pursue a career in nursing education, a need to maintain one's income while pursuing a graduate degree, and significant tuition and loan expenses for students who pursue graduate studies in nursing. Increasing faculty positions is an essential step towards training the next generation of nurses and reversing the nursing shortage.

Your Committees further find that it is necessary to increase the number of qualified nursing faculty to meet the demand for registered nurses in the next decade. It is necessary to increase the number of graduate students pursuing master's degrees and doctoral degrees in nursing so that they may become qualified nursing educators upon completion of their advanced degrees.

Your Committees have amended this measure by deleting the duplicate appropriation and expending agency sections. Your Committees did not appropriate funds at this time.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 116, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 116, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.