AARP Aupplauds Medicare Graduate Nursing Education Program

WASHINGTON—AARP Senior Vice President Susan Reinhard issued the following statement on this week’s enactment of health care reforms that include important provisions to strengthen the country’s nursing workforce:

“This week, President Obama signed a package of health care reforms that identifies nurses as critical players in meeting the changing health care needs of Americans.

“The Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration Program aims to increase the number of highly skilled advanced practice nurses available to care for Americans by providing $200 million to bolster the training of these key health care professionals. This program lays the foundation to transform the way Medicare pays for nursing education, targeting dollars toward educating nurses with the specific skills needed to meet the needs of Medicare recipients.

“Advanced practice nurses can provide the primary and preventive care, chronic care management and care coordination necessary to reduce waste and bring down costs while increasing access and quality.”

Reinhard noted the Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration Program would not be possible without the collaborative efforts of leading national nursing organizations, including:

• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
• American Association of Colleges of Nursing
• American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
• American College of Nurse Practitioners
• American College of Nurse-Midwives
• American Organization of Nurse Executives
• American Nurses Association
• National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
• National League for Nursing
• National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties

For more information on nursing issues and how they impact consumer health care, visit the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.