Hurting for Nurses

Just as boomers are starting to age, America is facing the worst nursing shortage in 50 years. By 2020, we are projected to need 500,000 nurses. Many people want to enroll in nursing school, but schools do not have enough qualified nurse-educators available to teach. How can we end the shortage?

The Nursing Shortage

National Problem, National Solutions

There are not enough nursing students like Hershaw Davis. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) joins us to explain America’s nursing shortage and how government can help.

The Hospital

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), a nurse herself, joins Sheilah to discuss her proposal for improving nurse-patient ratios.

The Role of the Nurse

Ann Converso of United American Nurses joins us to discuss the vital roles nurses play in our health care system.

The Role of the Nursing School

In order to train more nurses, we need more nursing teachers. Polly Bednash of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing joins us to discuss the problems that nursing faculties face.

Resources

• The Center to Champion Nursing in America—a joint initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—is addressing the growing nurse and nursing-faculty shortage, which threaten access to health care and quality of care across our nation.

• Tips on surviving the nursing shortage, from the AARP Bulletin Today.

• The lowdown on the nursing shortage, written by AARP Advocacy.

The Host

Through most of her distinguished reporting career, Sheilah Kast has focused on the economy and workplace and how they affect people's lives. Well known to viewers of public television, ABC News, and CNN, she has covered the White House and Congress.

Kast also reported on the Washington aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Her stories included an investigation of anthrax in the mails and the struggles of bereaved Pentagon families to secure benefits.

At The Washington Star, in her first reporting job, Kast covered financial regulation, taxes, and energy. Her expertise in these important issues eventually led her to start a national public-television show, "This Week in Business," which she hosted in association with Business Week magazine.

Ms. Kast is a skilled interviewer. She has often hosted NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and has her own current-affairs interview show on public radio in Maryland.

Contact Us

Inside E Street - AARP
Techworld Station
P.O. Box 50239
Washington, D.C. 20091-9998
E-mail: estreet@aarp.org