Senate Bill 89 heads to Governor Strickland to receive his signatureCOLUMBUS – The Ohio General Assembly passed Senator Sue Morano’s Comprehensive Nursing Education Bill (SB 89) today. This bill addresses a critical shortage in nursing educators across Ohio. SB 89 now awaits Governor Strickland’s signature.
“This is an exciting day for Ohio, for its nurses, and for those who want to become nurses,” said Senator Morano (D-Lorain). “Today, we took another step toward ending the nursing shortage in this state.”
Nationally, 65% of nursing schools cited faculty shortages as the reason for not accepting qualified applicants. In the 2005-2006 academic year, 88,000 qualified applicants were turned away from the nation’s nursing schools due to faculty shortages.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that by the year 2020 there will be a 36% shortfall in Registered Nurses (RNs) nationwide. In the State of Ohio alone, 40% of practicing nurses are expected to leave the field within the next 10 years, due in large part to retirement.
“I have worked tirelessly with Nursing organizations from across the state, the General Assembly, and my staff to get the Comprehensive Nursing Education Bill to where it is today,” said Senator Morano.
Senate Bill 89 incorporates recommendations of the General Assembly’s Nursing Education Study Committee chaired by Senator Morano. The committee made the following recommendations contained in Senate Bill 89:
- SB 89 will restructure the allocation of Nurse Education Assistance Program (NEALP): The Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents would be given the authority to reallocate 25% of NEALP. The money would be directed to nursing programs with the most need for assistance.
- SB 89 will enable the Ohio Skills Bank to serve as mediator between universities and hospitals: The Ohio Skills Bank, administered by the Board of Regents, would collaborate with educational programs to meet the needs for nursing education in every region of the state. The goal of this provision is to enable nurses to serve as mentors for nursing students, while also allowing hospitals and nursing programs to work together in coming up with solutions to the nursing educator shortage.
- SB 89 will adjust requirements for Advance Practice Nurses (APN): APNs that have had prescriptive authority in another state for at least one continuous year within the last three years would not be required to repeat their APN training under an Ohio physician. These APNs would need to be able to provide the appropriate documentation to the Ohio Board of Nursing in order to get their license.
Since it was introduced, the Comprehensive Nursing Education Bill has garnered support from the Ohio Board of Nursing, the Ohio Nurses Association, the American Nurses Association, AARP, and the Deans of the Nursing Schools of Otterbein College, Mount Carmel, North Central State College, and the Ohio State University.
The Comprehensive Nursing Education Bill was recently amended to restore loss of funding to Ohio’s Drug Repository Program. Fiscal Year ’09 funding to the Drug Repository Program will be maintained. Failure to exempt Drug Repositories from this reduction would have a negative impact on local governmental bodies like Lorain’s. The Lorain County Board of Mental Health has saved nearly $130,000 in pharmaceutical costs for severely disabled adults in Lorain County since the Drug Repository Program opened at Buderer Pharmacy in Sandusky. Others that benefit greatly from the program senior citizens who have reached the doughnut hole in their Medicare Part D benefits.
Senate Bill 89 now proceeds to Governor Ted Strickland to be signed into law.
Besides her duties in the General Assembly, Senator Morano is also a Registered Nurse who still works 3 nights a month in the Intensive Care Unit at Community Health Partners Hospital in Lorain.
To view floor testimony on Senate Bill 89, visit the following link:
http://www.ohiochannel.org/multimedia/organizations/media.cfm?file_id=123760&start_time=121&organization_id=30
(The Ohio Channel)
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