A lot of celebrating by nursing organizations and a fair amount of media coverage took place last month when President Bush signed the Nurse Reinvestment Act. A lot of hard work went into the passage of the House and Senate versions, and the development of reconciliatory language to which both houses of Congress would agree before passing a final version for the president's signature. The problem is that with all the celebrating, it seems to have escaped most people's notice that the act is not yet funded.

The Nurse Reinvestment Act, if and when it is funded, will affect both the recruitment of people into nursing and the retention of nurses. It is not a magic wand for solving the nursing shortage, but it's a good start. The law provides for loan repayment programs and scholarships, best-practice grants, long-term care training grants and more. About $250 million will be required to fully fund the new legislation.

While the nursing shortage has been receiving much more public recognition, many other issues demand the attention of Congress. Several recent studies have shown the decline of health care as a national priority. A Harris poll conducted July 24 asked respondents what they thought were the two most important issues for the government to address. Terrorism and the economy/jobs topped the list with 37 percent, followed by military spending (13 percent) and health care (9 percent).

In the early '90s, health care polled 55 percent, slipping to 21 percent in August 2000, 14 percent in August 2001 and only 3 percent in October.

While the public's dissatisfaction with the health care system continues to rise (especially the cost of health care, inadequacy and cost of coverage and Medicare), this dissatisfaction has not led to a call to action for government officials. This does not bode well for funding the Nurse Reinvestment Act.

So, what can we do? Congress is scheduled to take action on the 2003 appropriations bills this month, so time is short. Take it upon yourself to either call or e-mail your senators and representatives, and ask others to do the same. Your message to them should be that this bill can positively affect patient care in the United States by helping to ease the shortage of desperately needed nurses, and that they should vote to provide the $250 million necessary to fund the new law.

Without this funding, much of the work put in to pass the Reinvestment Act will have been for naught. Someone once told me that vision without action is hallucination. Let's help make this new law a reality.

Postscript: My Editor's Note in the Sept. 2 issue ("Never Forget") mentioned 10 nurses who died Sept. 11-all the nurses I was aware of at the time. Since then, I have learned that an 11th nurse died that day.

Donna Sauls wrote to tell me that her former classmate, Debra Gibbon, RN, COHN, was on the 106th floor of World Trade Center Tower Two, where she worked as senior vice president of AON Risk Services. Gibbon and our other nurse colleagues who lost their lives that day are in our thoughts and remembrances.

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