May 28, 2009 | Press Releases
Testimony of Joan Verplanck
President, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce
Before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee
New Jersey State Legislature, Trenton, New Jersey
Thank you Chairman Vitale, Vice Chair Weinberg, and members of this Committee for allowing me to make the business case for increasing the number of nurse educators in New Jersey and across the nation. It is a high priority for the business community.
My name is Joan Verplanck, and I am president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, an advocacy organization in Trenton that works to create an environment in which New Jersey’s businesses can grow and thrive. A climate that is friendly to businesses, we believe, will lead to economic prosperity that will benefit all of our state’s citizens.
A number of factors threaten to undermine our state’s business climate, and the high cost of health care is high on that list. As individuals, we know that high quality health care is extremely expensive, even for those of us who have full insurance coverage. As employers, we pay an even higher premium for that care. Health care costs are the single largest cost driver of business today, and the high price of health insurance prevents many of our businesses from flourishing.
Lawmakers around the country are currently engaging in a debate over how to overhaul our nation’s health care system so that it works better for both employees and employers. One way to do that, here in New Jersey and across the nation, is to ensure that hospitals and other care settings have an adequate supply of nurses. The largest segment of the health care workforce, nurses play a key role in maintaining employee health and wellness and in providing workers and their families with a wide range of health services at all stages of their lives.
Unfortunately, we are moving in the wrong direction when it comes to our nation’s supply of nurses. Experts predict an unprecedented shortfall of nurses in the next decade, and the problem is expected to be especially acute in New Jersey. The shortage couldn’t come at a worse time: As baby-boomers age, they are placing greater demands than ever on the nation’s health care system.
The current economic downturn may have temporarily eased the shortage in some areas, but it won’t bridge the looming gap between the shrinking supply of nurses and the rising demand for their services.
What does this mean for businesses? Put simply, a greater likelihood of failure.
Already, the annual cost to businesses of poor health care quality per covered employee is $1,900. Each year, inadequate care costs businesses as many as 45 million avoidable sick days—the equivalent of 180,000 full time employees calling in sick every day for a full year. This costs employers more than $7 billion a year in lost productivity.
That staggering price tag will increase as nurses become scarcer and the quality of care deteriorates as a result. And that will translate into lower productivity and higher absenteeism in the workplace.
For employers, the bottom line is this: Businesses will have an even harder time staying profitable—an already difficult challenge in an inhospitable business climate. If the nurse shortage is not reversed, our state’s already struggling economy will suffer even more. A robust and dynamic nursing workforce is key to business productivity, worker health, and the economic development the state needs.
The good news is that the shortage can be curbed, and even reversed, by training more nurses to fill the shoes of those preparing to leave the profession. But right now, nursing schools do not have enough faculty to train the nurses we need to meet projected demand. As a result, nursing schools are turning away thousands of qualified aspiring nurses. The shortage of nurse educators is only expected to grow as nurse faculty age along with the rest of the nursing workforce. In New Jersey, the average age of a nurse faculty member is 55.
We in the business community recognize that hiring more nurse educators to train the next generation of nurses is the kind of real-world solution we need. That is why we at the Chamber are helping to lead the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, which will provide dozens of new nurse faculty who can train the next generation of nurses in this state. We are delighted to work with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on this essential Initiative, and grateful for its support and the incredible service it is doing for the state.
Sensible efforts like the New Jersey Nursing Initiative are a way to help our employers, employees and citizens prosper in an uncertain future.
Thank you.
May 28, 2009 | Press Releases
Testimony of Jeffrey C. Scheininger
President, Flexline/U.S. Brass & Copper Corporation
Before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee
New Jersey State Legislature, Trenton, New Jersey
Mr. Chair, Ms. Vice Chair, and members of this Committee: I’m here today to discuss why it is important to our state’s small businesses that we address the nurse faculty shortage, so we can avert a nursing shortage that will damage our state’s health care system.
It may not be entirely clear why a nursing faculty shortage is a threat to the small businesses of New Jersey. Allow me to elaborate.
My name is Jeff Scheininger, and I am president of Flexline/U.S. Brass & Copper Corporation. Flexline is a small manufacturer of industrial hose products located in Linden. I am your typical small business owner: I employ about 20 employees, and as you know 35 percent of New Jersey’s workers are employed by firms of this size. Like most small business owners, I am very concerned about our health care system. I am concerned because I care about the health and well-being of my employees and their families, and I am concerned because I am the one who pays for their health insurance—an expenditure that consumes an enormous and growing chunk of my company’s profits.
My health insurance expenditures, for my employees and their dependents, have grown to almost 30 percent of pre-tax profits. Every year, I anxiously await notification from my health insurance carriers as to what this year’s rate increase will be. I must tell you that this annual ritual has become one of my least favorite and in fact, most dreaded events. I am regularly stunned at the size of the increase, and more often than not, begin the process of finding new carriers, changing co-pays, and rearranging the benefits package. It is difficult to pay the health insurance premiums for my employees and their families and still afford to give raises, or retirement benefits, or anything else for that matter.
The escalating cost of health insurance is a huge issue for small businesses. I make sure that my employees and their families are covered, but it is increasingly difficult. I couldn’t raise the price of my products from 1997 to 2004 because of competition from China, but during that time, my firm’s health insurance costs doubled.
Smaller companies are, by definition, more personal, so I tend to get involved with navigating the health care system in ways that leaders of larger companies may not. I see the impact of quality care on my employees and their families, and I devote a good deal of time to helping my employees navigate the twists and turns of health insurance policies and ensuring that our plan pays for what it is obligated to cover. I want to make sure they are getting what I am paying for and so do the thousands of other business owners in this state, who go to great lengths to provide their employees with quality health care coverage.
And quite frankly, my employees will not get quality care, at any price, no matter what form universal coverage takes, if the serious nursing shortage that is coming down the road undermines the quality of patient care that nurses provide and that constitutes the bedrock of the health care delivery system. Nurses who are overworked and stretched thin are unable to provide patients with quality care. That translates into longer hospital stays, more sick time, and even more substantial health care costs, and therefore: ever rising insurance premiums. Family members who must perform nursing type duties while their loved ones are in the hospital are not on the job performing the duties that they are paid to do. Inadequate health care translates into sicker employees who are less productive when they are on the job, and more likely to take days off to care for themselves or their family members. Believe me, sick, absent, worried employees are not good employees.
The 32 percent of our state’s total population that constitutes the small business community, the employees, the owners, our vendors and our customers alike have a significant stake in health care reform. That is why I have volunteered for the past five years to chair the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce’s Health Care Reform Initiative. This initiative supports comprehensive health policy proposals at the state level that increase coverage, make our employees healthier and encourage productivity improvements that lower health care costs. Our committee supports efforts to computerize health records, we actively support corporate health and wellness programs, and specific tort reforms aimed at increasing the amount of monies spent on health care and not on litigation.
I strongly believe that we must move quickly to curb, and reverse, the looming nursing shortage. I stand before you today as someone who is proud to be part of the Chamber. I can say that I understand, and business understands that the nurse faculty shortage is not someone else’s problem; it’s our problem. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation knows this, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce knows this, and New Jersey businesses know it. I am proud to be part of the solution.
Thank you.
May 28, 2009 | Press Releases
Testimony of David Anthony Forrester
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Nursing
Before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee
New Jersey State Legislature, Trenton, New Jersey
May 28, 2009
Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to testify here today. My name is David Anthony Forrester, Ph.D., R.N., ANEF. I have been a nurse for 35 years and a nurse educator for 30 years. I taught at Rutgers University College of Nursing and at Pace University’s Leinhard of Nursing, and I have been at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Nursing for 21 years as Associate Dean and tenured full professor. My areas of specialization are adult emergency/ trauma, critical care, and psychiatric/mental health nursing.
Being a nurse and a nurse faculty member is one of the greatest jobs in the world. I love my work. I love teaching the next generation of nurses. I love the impact I have on young nurses, and on the patients they will care for.
I love being part of this profession. Nursing education provides a great way to make a living; it has been good for me and for my family. It has helped give us rich, fulfilling lives.
I love that, as a nurse, I learn so much about the human condition and am witness to the profound passages of human experience, from birth to death, and help individuals stay healthy, recover from illness, live higher quality lives with chronic illness, and even help them cope with dying. As a nurse, I contribute to the betterment of the public’s health. No other profession can magnify the good you can do for society the way nursing can—and by teaching young nurses, I am able to multiply my impact a thousand-fold.
Nursing is a knowledge-based profession. Nurses provide evidence-based patient care which is based on scientific research, and many nurses, like myself, are scholars who conduct research and advance the knowledge base for the discipline.
As a nurse I can work anywhere in the United States or the world for that matter. There is always a need for nursing services, and that need will grow in the years ahead. In fact, there is a desperate need for more people in this field. If we had enough faculty and space, we could easily triple enrollment at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), School of Nursing.
We are turning away qualified applicants—young people who want to do this work, have the intelligence and talent for this work, and can make a difference through nursing. We’re turning them away because we have limited faculty to teach them. That’s a terrible shame, especially given the expected growth in demand for health care and the severe shortage of nurses.
The shortage of nurse faculty in New Jersey right now is especially worrisome because the nurse faculty workforce is maturing. We urgently need younger colleagues to join us and eventually take our places, especially as the State’s population ages and demand for health care grows.
Unless we put more nurse faculty in place, the public health will suffer. Acute care hospitals are about providing nursing care—if you are hospitalized, it is because you need nursing care. Having fewer nurses leads to negative patient outcomes, more complications, and higher mortality rates.
We need more than simply "competent" nurses; we need expert, evidence-based nursing care—and we need nurse faculty to produce the kind of knowledgeable and skilled nurses to provide that care.
I am 55 years old, and I intend to teach for quite a while longer. But when the time comes, I worry that retirement will be difficult because we won’t have enough new nurse faculty prepared at the doctoral level. Put simply, I worry that there won’t be someone to take my place.
Some say one of the hurdles to addressing the nurse faculty shortage is related to faculty salaries. I cannot speak for all, but I have served as a member of the board of governors of UMDNJ’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and I attribute the competitive salaries offered at UMDNJ to the acknowledgement among those within our university of market conditions and the importance of fair compensation.
Let me also mention one important role nurses play that often is overlooked. From natural or man-made disasters to H1N1 (swine) flu and food poisoning, emergency preparedness depends on nurses. The more well-educated nurses we have, the safer we are as a State and as a country. If we care about emergency preparedness, we have to care about solving the nursing shortage that lies ahead, and the only way to solve it is to produce more nurse faculty to prepare the next generation of expert nurses.
At the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Nursing, we just had our commencement. As was the case in other years, I looked out at the audience with so much joy and pride. I saw nurse graduates who were the first in their families to have the chance to earn a college degree, and I saw the incredible pride on their parents’ faces as they picked up those degrees.
But I know something more: that the pride those parents felt that day was only the beginning, because their daughters and sons will care for patients, conduct research, teach, and do much more to continue making them proud for years and years to come.
Not for a single minute have I ever regretted choosing nursing as my career. Being a nurse faculty member has changed my life and, because of it, I have changed others’ lives. I feel very lucky, and my colleagues in nursing education feel the same way.
So I applaud the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, and thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce for leading it. Creating opportunities for more young people to become nurse faculty is good for them, good for their families, good for our health care system, good for New Jersey, and good for the country. Thank you.
May 28, 2009 | Press Releases
Testimony of Maria Torchia LoGrippo
RWJF New Jersey Nursing Scholar
Before the Senate, Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee
New Jersey State Legislature, Trenton, New Jersey
May 28, 2009
I would like to start by thanking you all for giving me the opportunity to speak today about a priceless gift I have received from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Nursing Initiative: the opportunity to pursue my dream to become a tenured nursing professor, a position that will let me teach, conduct research, and provide and improve patient care. I am deeply grateful for this gift, and am truly honored to be here today to testify about what it will mean for me, my family and the many others throughout the profession.
My name is Maria Torchia LoGrippo, and I teach undergraduate adult nursing courses at the College of Nursing at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, a quaint town just 14 miles from Manhattan. I love my job as a full-time nursing professor because it lets me combine my passions for patient care, teaching and research—and also lets me “be a mom”—an ideal career to still work and be able to come home to care for my family.
Since I started teaching, I began asking myself: Could I ever achieve my dream to further my education and earn a doctoral degree so I can be a nurse leader and advance the profession. Until this month, enrolling in a Ph.D. program had simply not been an option. I have two young children to care for, and our family relies on the income I earn as a full-time professor to make ends meet. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to give up my salary if I were to become a student again.
But what seemed impossible only a few months ago is now a reality, thanks to a grant from the New Jersey Nursing Initiative’s Faculty Preparation Program. Imagine my delight earlier this month when I received the news that I was a recipient of a full tuition waiver in the doctoral program at Seton Hall University, a stipend of $50,000 a year to help cover our family’s living expenses while I am a student, and a new laptop to boot. I didn’t become a nursing teacher for the money, but I feel like I’ve hit the nursing jackpot!
For me, the scholarship is a dream come true. I have always wanted to be nurse. Ever since I was a little girl, I had shared my dream to become a nurse and care for sick people. It is a dream passed on to me from my mother, who worked for decades as a secretary in the office of an obstetrician-gynecologist. My mother never managed to realize her own dream to become a nurse, because of her limited education and finances. But given this amazing opportunity, from the RWJF, I will be able to achieve my goal to become a nursing professor.
My parents had always wanted the best for me; they wanted me to reach my potential. They made deep sacrifices so I could get a first-rate private-school education. I studied hard, got good grades, and was admitted to Georgetown University. I could afford this education because of contributions from my parents and a combination of scholarships, grants, and a work-study program. I enrolled in the School of Nursing at Georgetown, and was on my way to realizing my mother’s dream—as well as my own.
As a new college student in the nation’s capital during the early 90s, I developed a keen interest in health care policy. I followed the debate over health care reform with great interest, watched lawmakers argue the finer points of policy from the public galleries in the House and Senate, and attended congressional hearings as a part of our coursework. I soon realized that policy-makers have a much greater impact on the nation’s patient health than individual nurses. And scholarly research, I discovered, was a way that I could influence policy. A policy wonk was born.
Upon graduation from Georgetown, I stayed in the DC area and interned at the National Institutes of Health where I developed a deeper appreciation for the professional nurse’s role in biomedical research. In 1993, I returned to my home in South Jersey and began working at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. There I began practicing medical/surgical nursing and quickly decided to enroll in a Master’s program. I began my studies in Nursing Administration at the University of Pennsylvania, meeting individuals who I regard as true leaders in the education of nurses. Along with rigorous coursework and the interaction of supportive and knowledgeable faculty, I gained the necessary tools to promote and advance the profession. I continued working in the clinical setting and also at that time I discovered an innate talent for teaching as I mentored new nurses in my role as a critical care nurse. It was working with new nurses that caused my career trajectory to take a turn toward academia. I realized that as a nursing educator, I would be able to combine my love for nursing, my affinity for teaching and my interest in research—and be able to give back to a profession that has given me so much.
After spending several years in a variety of roles in clinical practice, I took an opportunity in 2005 to teach an adjunct nursing course at Drexel University and later that year took a full-time position in the College of Nursing at Seton Hall University, and this is where I hope to stay after I earn my doctorate. As a professor, I hope to influence the state of our nation’s health care—and improve patient outcomes—by passing my clinical knowledge onto the next generation of nurses, and by pursuing scholarly research that will help future nurses become agents of change in health care reform.
I am excited to move into this next phase of my professional life, and I take heart in the knowledge that I will be able to play a small part in curbing, and even reversing, the looming nursing shortage in New Jersey and nationwide by helping train the next generation of nurses. As other speakers have said, supporting nurse educators is critical. Supporting nursing education means providing quality nursing educational programs that will meet the enormous projected demands for nursing services.
I want to thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for giving me the opportunity to be part of the solution to that problem. And I want to thank members of this Committee for letting me speak today about how I will do that. Thank you.
May 28, 2009 | Press Releases
Testimony of Fred West
Assistant Principal, Ocean Township High School, Oakhurst, New Jersey
Before the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee
New Jersey State Legislature
May 28, 2009
Thank you, Chairman Vitale, Vice Chairman Weinberg, and members of this committee for the chance to testify about the incalculable value of our nation’s nurses. I have seen first-hand how dedicated, compassionate and skilled nurses can make all the difference. In my case, our nurses allowed my mother-in-law to maintain her health—and her dignity—through a courageous battle with liver cancer—and allowed our family to love her and meet her needs in her final weeks and months.
This is an important hearing, for our State and for the country, and I’m honored to tell you my story.
I am an assistant principal at Ocean Township High School in Oakhurst, New Jersey, a very diverse small town of about 28,000 people near the Jersey Shore. I have known and worked with nurses all my adult life. My sister was a nurse, and I supervised our five school nurses from 1991 to 1997. From these extraordinary individuals, I gained an understanding of the hard work that is nursing and a deep appreciation for the care they give their patients.
My understanding and appreciation of the value of nursing deepened in August 2007, when my 90-year-old mother-in-law noticed a growth in her abdomen. Soon after, she was diagnosed with cancer. Her physician planned to remove the tumor in the fall of that year. On the morning of the surgery, however, a sonogram revealed that the tumor had grown so large that the surgery represented too great of a risk. We called off the surgery.
Two options were offered: chemotherapy and radiation therapy, or going home to let mom’s disease follow its natural course. Mom wanted to be in her home.
To help us make the best choice for Kathi’s mom, I spent a lot of time talking to Marjorie Forgang, Director of Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey (VNACJ) Hospice Program. Marjorie guided us through the hospice process and stayed in touch throughout the entire time. Shortly thereafter, we were introduced to Peggy Lasoff, RN, a hospice nurse who works for VNACJ. She met with Kathi’s mom for a complete nursing assessment and then met with our entire family. She told us that she could help manage mom’s pain and for the time she had left, maximize her quality of life. Using a holistic approach, she utilized resources from an interdisciplinary team that included nurses, home health aides, therapists, social workers and spiritual counselors.
Mom’s care was centered on our family’s wishes and our needs. In the five months that VNA’s staff cared for my mother-in-law, they brought nothing but compassion and comfort to her. For our family, they were as close to angels as one could ever imagine.
Peggy arranged for my mother-in-law to have a certified home health aide—Betty Love. Ms. Love, who was aptly named, first began providing care for my mother-in-law in February 2008 on a part-time basis. She came to the house three times a week for two hours a day and saw to it that Kathi’s mom was fed, bathed, dressed and comfortable. Peggy kept a close eye on the status of her health and comfort, and replenished supplies and medications as needed.
To my mother-in-law, the presence of her nurse and home health aide was more than the sum of those parts; they offered consolation and companionship at the most emotionally challenging times in her life.
Their help also meant a great deal to my wife, our two daughters, and of course to me. The nurse was able to anticipate how the cancer would progress and discuss it with us ahead of time, reducing our fear and anxiety. She was able to manage my mother-in-law’s pain and other symptoms. Without the services of a visiting nurse, my wife would have had to take a leave of absence from her job to care for her mother. And she would have had no relief from the demanding physical and emotional work of caring for a dying parent.
My daughters and I also benefited tremendously from the relief the nurses provided. I felt that one of the most important lessons for my daughters to learn was that we did not have to go through this difficult time alone—there were people who cared and wanted to help. Peggy was able to assess all our needs and recommend the appropriate intervention ranging from additional nursing care, increased home health aide assistance, scheduled visits from the social worker for emotional support and family guidance, and the comfort of spiritual counseling.
Peggy was especially helpful as my mother-in-law’s condition deteriorated. She arranged for continuous care by LPN Barbara Olivacz to ensure she was comfortable at all times. Knowing that she was receiving the best care possible enabled us to take breaks from the round-the-clock work of caring for her. We could take time to dine out together, sleep in our own beds and step away from the emotional stress of seeing someone you love deal with a terminal disease.
My mother-in-law passed away in June of last year, after five months in the care of Peggy and her colleagues at the Visiting Nurses Association of Central Jersey. Watching her die was an extremely difficult experience but we were comforted by the fact that she was able to spend her last months at home with the people she loved most in the world. That would never have been possible if we had not been able to rely on the nurses and the hospice team who provided such quality care.
Their skill, support and compassion enabled my mother to pass in peace and comfort and helped my family share her end of life journey together. My family and I will be eternally grateful.
I can only hope that when others experience the loss of a family member, or face death themselves, they are able to do so with the guiding hand of a nurse like Peggy. I share the concern that the looming shortage means a nurse will not be there for everyone who needs one in the future.
That is why I am here today: to offer my full support for efforts like the New Jersey Nursing Initiative, which will help ensure that nurses will be there for all of us.
Thank you.
May 26, 2009 | Press Releases
Contact: Gretchen Wright and Johanna Diaz – (202) 371-1999; George Koodray – (609) 989-7888 x157
$22 Million Initiative to Launch at State Senate Hearing Thursday;
Focus on Nurse Faculty Shortage, Averting Health Care Crisis in State
New Jersey does not have enough faculty to educate the nurses the state will need to provide quality health care for its residents in coming years. How is this likely to affect patient care, as the state’s population ages? What does it mean for the business community? What steps will improve the situation and ensure there are enough well-prepared nurses to care for New Jersey residents?
Those questions will be explored at a legislative hearing on nursing issues sponsored by the New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. During the session, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Foundation will announce an unprecedented $22 million initiative aimed at ensuring that New Jersey will have an adequate nursing workforce to meet its future health care needs. The legislative hearing will take place:
10 a.m., Thursday, May 28
New Jersey State House Annex
First Floor, Committee Room 4
125 West State Street
Trenton, New Jersey
The hearing will focus on the New Jersey nursing workforce and the steps that can ensure that the state has enough nurses to avert a health care crisis in coming years. Speakers will include:
- Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- Susan Bakewell-Sachs, PhD, RN, PNP-BC, Program Director of the New Jersey Nursing Initiative and Dean of the School of Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science at The College of New Jersey.
- Joan Verplanck, president of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.
- Jeffrey Scheininger, president of Flexline/US Brass & Copper Corp.
- David Anthony Forrester, Ph.D., R.N., ANEF, Professor, UMDNJ School of Nursing.
- Maria Torchia LoGrippo, RN, MSN, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Jersey Nursing Scholar.
- Fred West, Ocean Township resident who will discuss the role nurses played in a family member’s battle against liver cancer.
The witnesses will be introduced by Mary Ann Christopher, R.N., M.S.N., F.A.A.N, President, Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey, who chairs the new initiative’s National Advisory Committee. She will provide additional information to the Committee.
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