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GAO-07-492R 1 (2007-04-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptauzo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


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        Accountability * Integrity * Reliability
United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548


          April 30, 2007

          The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy
          Chairman
          The Honorable Michael B. Enzi
          Ranking Member
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
          United States Senate

          The Honorable John D. Dingell
          Chairman
          The Honorable Joe Barton
          Ranking Member
          Committee on Energy and Commerce
          House of Representatives

          Subject: Nursing Workforce: HHS Needs Methodology to Identify Facilities with a
                  Critical Shortage of Nurses

          Registered nurses (RN) are the single largest group of health care providers in the United
          States, with more than 2.4 million people employed as RNs in 2004.' Basic RN training may be
          completed through a 2-year associate's degree, a 3-year diploma, or a 4-year bachelor's
          degree. RNs work in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, nursing homes,
          physicians' offices, and public health clinics. Reports by government agencies and others
          have raised concerns about nurse shortages. In 2001, we reported on an emerging shortage of
          RNs to fill vacant positions across a range of health care settings.2 The Health Resources and
          Services Administration (HRSA), an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services
          (HHS), estimated that the supply of RNs nationally fell approximately 111,000 short of
          demand in 2000 (5.5 percent) and projected the gap would widen in the ensuing years.3









          'This includes RNs employed both full-time and part-time. Data for 2004 were the most recent available
          on the overall RN workforce.

          2GAO, Nursing Workforce: Emerging Nurse Shortages Due to Multiple Factors, GM O 1944
          (Washington, D.C.: July 10, 2001).
          3HRSA Bureau of Health Professions, Projected Supply, Demand, and Shortages of Registered Nurses:
          2000-2020 (Rockville, Md., 2002).


GAO-07-492R Nursing Workforce

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