Nurses Rally in Alabama for Scholarship Bill

Alabama nurses rallied in Montgomery this weekend, warning of the looming health care crisis and boldly declaring that they are prepared to manage the crisis... if lawmakers in the state will back them up. The nurses seek to push through legislation that would increase the number of teaching scholarships available.

Across the United States, the burgeoning health care crisis has caused serious problems at a time of economic distress in which important issues are often neglected. Advances in the Affordable Care Act have already begun to stretch the system, as a class of citizens become newly able to seek health care treatment. Additionally, as that bulk of American society, the baby boomers, grows older and increases demand for our already stretched health care system, we may find ourselves in a serious shortage of medical professionals. Already it is easy to feel the strain on the system. In Alabama, nurses say that one of the biggest problems state residents face is access to care, largely due to a lack of educators, nurses, and doctors.

Nurses and nursing students rallied in the state capitol on the steps of the statehouse accompanied by the Alabama State Marching Band and made quite the display for their cause. They went out to support House Bill (HB) 83, which would increase the number of teaching scholarships offered to nursing students. One of the major setbacks to bulking up our capacity of medical professionals is teaching space and access to education. In most states, many thousands of nursing school applicants who are highly qualified are rejected from programs simply because the educational system cannot catch up with the demand for more nurses.

Many states, educational institutions, and unions have urged such scholarships as those outlined in HB 83 as one solution to this problem. Representative April Weaver who sponsored HB 83 is herself a nurse and she reported optimism that the bill would pass. ?We really have a huge issue with the nursing shortage that is coming upon us in Alabama and it?s so important that we address this now before we actually have a health care crisis,? she said. Dr. Joyce Varner, President, Alabama Nurses Association, says, ?We have a crisis here so we need to get these people in nursing school, we need to have good qualified faculty and we need to get them out where we can help with this because when 2014 comes and our Medicaid rolls go from 900,000 and increase by another 500,000 what are we going to do??

This in itself would not solve the problem, however. Nurses in the state have other complaints regarding their permitted utility in a state where so many people simply can?t get the medical care they need. Many counties in Alabama have almost no primary care providers and unlike in other states, nurse practitioners in Alabama are highly restricted from assuming the responsibilities normally reserved for those with superior medical titles. For example, 48 states allow nurse practitioners to write prescriptions for controlled substances; Alabama and Florida are the only two to prohibit this.

The nurses also want lawmakers to remove restrictions that prevent them from functioning in roles in which they were trained to serve. Additionally, many states now allow nurses to have independent practices, which could help bring coverage to so many in Alabama who wouldn?t otherwise get medical care. Nurse Ami Goodnough explained to reporters, ?Currently in this state we need to be under a doctor to prescribe, the advance practice nurse cannot work independently and in other states the advanced practice nurse can have a clinic and write prescriptions independently, especially in palative care a new and upcoming need as the baby boomers continue to age and how can you write prescriptions for pain management and narcotics for the elderly when you don?t have prescriptive authority??

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley went to the rally and spoke to the crowd. He acknowledged that there are barriers to be broken through, but that he wants to create an Alabama Health Alliance that would bring all the medical associations, including nurses, together and get them working toward common goals. ?The nurses and nurse practitioners and the physicians assistants which are probably not represented here today they play a vital role in our health care system and we all work together and that?s what we need to do we shouldn?t have these turf battles and turf wars we all need to come together in a common goal to help our patients,? said Bentley.