Amid Severe Nurse Shortage Dems Introduce Support Faculty And Expand Access To Nursing School Act

WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44) May 11 introduced the Support Faculty and Expand Access to Nursing School Act with Reps. Adam Schiff (CA-30) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-At Large). This legislation will provide grant funding through the Department of Health and Human Services or HHS to nursing schools to allow them to expand their capacity to train nurses by hiring more nursing faculty to teach. 

The U.S. healthcare system is experiencing a dangerous staffing crisis of Registered Nurses that is expected to intensify in the coming years. This nurse staffing crisis is intensified by the significant shortage of nursing school teaching faculty and clinical preceptors across the country. The teaching faculty shortage limits the number of nursing students enrolled in programs, which ultimately limits the number of new RNs entering the workforce each year.

U.S. nursing schools turned away over 91,000 qualified applications from nursing programs in 2021 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, and clinical preceptors, as well as budget constraints. 

A recent study examining nursing school faculty found that one third of the current nursing faculty workforce in baccalaureate and graduate programs are expected to retire by 2025. Additionally, the pay disparity between advanced practice nurses that work in a clinical setting versus those who work as teaching faculty in a nursing school is significant. 

To address the shortage of nursing school teaching faculty and clinical preceptors and help expand the nursing workforce, the Support Faculty and Expand Access to Nursing School Act would:

     Establish a grant program under HHS to provide funding to nursing schools to support the retention and recruitment of teaching faculty and/or clinical preceptors.

     Prioritize funding for nursing schools in cities and states that experience the most severe faculty and preceptor shortages.

     Direct the HHS Secretary to collect information from grantees on the impact of the grant program, including data related to the recruitment and retention of faculty and preceptors and student enrollment rates at such programs.