STAND. COM. REP. NO.386

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 749

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 749 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NURSING SCHOLARSHIPS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a University of Hawaii nursing scholarship program.

Testimony supporting this measure was received from the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Hawaii Nurses' Association, Hawaii Pacific Health, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

Your Committees find that a nursing shortage exists and will continue into the next decade unless actions are taken to reverse the trend. It is anticipated that Hawaii will need to produce four hundred nurses each year for the next fifteen years to replace the number of nurses leaving the profession. Nurse shortages directly reduce the availability and quality of all health care services thereby threatening the health and welfare of the public. Consequently, your Committees find that the nursing shortage is a public health crisis and that this measure provides an important component to resolving this issue by providing incentives for individuals to enter the nursing profession.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Adding the requirement that students must qualify for resident tuition at the University of Hawaii to be eligible for the nursing scholarship; and

(2) Broadening the scope of the nursing scholarship program to include nursing programs for all University of Hawaii campuses.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 749, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 749, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Education,

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair