I would like to applaud the Senate Appropriations Committee for adopting a Fiscal Year 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill that would fund two very important programs: Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs at $234.472 million and the National Institutes of Nursing Research at $155.210 million.
Increasing funding for these two programs is critical for supporting the costs of educating nurses and providing research dollars ability to improve patient care. Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs bolster nursing education from entry-level preparation through their graduate study. These programs provide the largest source of federal funding for nurses education, financial support for nursing education programs, individual students, and nurses. Some of the major grant programs include: Advance Education Nursing, Workforce Diversity Grant, and Nurse Faculty Loan Program to name a few.
The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) is dedicated to improving the health and health care of Americans through the funding of nursing research and research training. The NINR helps fund vital research in areas such as chronic and acute diseases, health promotion and maintenance, symptom management, health disparities, caregiving, self-management, and the end of life.
I want to acknowledge and thank Subcommittee Chair Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA), along with the rest of the subcommittee, for crafting a bill that recognizes the value of these programs and the nursing profession to the health of our nation. I would also like to thank Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies for their work in this effort. At AWHONN, we encouraged the Senate to pass this appropriations bill with these funding levels for Title VIII and NINR and we encourage House and Senate conferees to adopt these funding levels when working out a compromise bill.
It is imperative that Title VIII programs and NINR continue to thrive, as the U.S. Labor Statistic's Employment Projections for 2012-2022 project nurse employment rates to grow by 19 percent, meaning that the nursing workforce will be over 1 million by 2022. Funding these education and research programs will be increasingly important as the nursing workforce continues to grow along with healthcare needs in this country.
Please call and write your Senators to support passage of the funding levels for these two critical programs.