Press Citizen Calls For Increased Pay For Nurses
Iowa City Press Citizen
Monday, March 10, 2008
Our View - Raise wages to keep nurses here in Iowa
Saturday's Opinion Forum presented three guest opinions responding to a report recently released by Gov. Chet Culver's task force on nursing, chaired by Lt. Gov. Patty Judge ("Iowa's nurses face many challenges," March 8). The report recommended that Iowa:
• Develop a health work force clearinghouse to gather data and to provide a more accurate picture of the challenges facing Iowa's health work force.
• Expand public and private programs to provide loans and scholarships for nursing education.
• Help students better transition from community college to private nursing colleges and state universities.
• Increase the number of distance-learning opportunities for would-be nurses.
• Increase the number of nursing faculty, including strengthening recruiting efforts and increasing salaries.
• Encourage public health facilities to increase nursing wages and meet national salary averages.
The University of Iowa College of Nursing recently addressed many of these factors by shifting its educational emphasis away from bachelors' level training to focus more on preparing nurses capable of leading and teaching other nurses. It also has increased its focus on Iowans in compatible fields who have recognized the opportunities currently available in nursing.
But, as with the report issued earlier this year by the Generation Iowa Commission, it is that final recommendation that proves to be the most important and the most challenging ("Close the pay gap to keep more nurses in state," March 8). Although reports of the nursing task force and the Next Generation Iowa Commission catalogue many challenges and recommendations, they primarily serve to flesh out one basic, sad economic fact: People make less money in Iowa than they do in most other states. That situation is worse for nursing than most other careers because, at about $47,000 per year, Iowa ranks 52nd in wages for registered nurses -- that behind 49 other states as well as Guam and Washington, D.C.
We hope the governor and the Legislature to read this report carefully -- especially its recommendations for increasing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements ("Reform Medicare, Medicaid reimbursements," March 8). But we really want them to take steps to make these recommendations reality.
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