HOUSE BILL REPORT

HB 1357

BYRepresentatives Day, Taylor, Lewis, Braddock, Vekich, Cantwell, Sprenkle, Bristow, Rayburn, Dellwo, P. King, Kremen, Wineberry, Doty, Hine and Fuhrman

Establishing a conditional scholarship program for nurses.

House Committe on Health Care

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  (10)

      Signed by Representatives Braddock, Chair; Day, Vice Chair; Bristow, Brooks, Cantwell, Lewis, Lux, D. Sommers, Sprenkle and Vekich.

House Staff:Antonio Sanchez (786-7383)

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH CARE JANUARY 22, 1988

BACKGROUND:

Recent data indicate that the health care industry is facing a significant shortage of licensed nursing staff.  The current lack of nursing staff has resulted in critical understaffing of some medical/surgical areas and in certain geographical locations around the state.  These conditions have raised concerns about the possible compromise in the quality of care in addition to contributing to spiraling health care costs because of the need to fill vacancies by recruiting higher cost temporary nurses from staffing agencies.

There is currently no formal state scholarship program designed to attract nursing students to the profession.

SUMMARY:

SUBSTITUTE BILL:  A conditional scholarship program is established for nurses, to be administered by the Higher Education Coordinating Board.  It provides conditional scholarships to students pursuing educational programs for becoming practical and registered nurses with the stipulation that upon graduation and completion of the licensure examination, the applicant will be given the opportunity to either repay the loan or work in a nurse shortage area for a period of up to five years, with a five year loan pay-back period.

The powers and duties of the higher education coordinating board in implementing and administering the scholarship program include: Selecting practical and registered nurse students to receive the scholarship; Adopting the scholarships rules and guidelines; Managing and collecting repayments; and Soliciting further public and private funding sources.

SUBSTITUTE BILL COMPARED TO ORIGINAL:  The requirement of applicants to have a 3.3 grade point average in order to qualify for the loan, and maintain a 3.0 grade point average to continue in the scholarship program, is deleted.  A definition of "nurse shortage area " is added.  The amount of time a nurse must work in a nurse shortage area and loan repayment is reduced from ten to five years.  Other housekeeping amendments are added.

Fiscal Note:      Requested January 21, 1988.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Lorraine Overmyer, Washington State Board of Nursing; Beverly Jacobson, Seattle Area Hospital Council; Joyce Pashley, Washington State Nurse Association; Sue Hegyvary, University of Washington School of Nursing; Kathe Dobbs, Washington Organization of Nurse Executives; Donna Hinrichs, Visiting Nurse Services; Hilke Faber, Nursing Home Coalition.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    This bill provides a means for attracting more nurses to the profession which is experiencing a serious shortage of personnel.  In addition, it will insure that the most understaffed geographical areas will be the first to benefit from the program.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.