The Bush administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2008 would worsen what already is projected to be a severe nursing shortage in coming years by cutting funds to increase faculty at nursing schools, advocates and lawmakers say.

Although the White House has proposed increased funding to train nurses themselves, the negative effects of cuts targeting advanced education for nurses outweigh the positive effect of that budget increase, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN).

But the administration defends the cuts, saying there are better ways than the federal Advanced Education Nursing Programs to address the shortage. The proposed budget for the Health Resources and Services Administration would eliminate the Advanced Education Nursing Programs, now funded at $57 million. At the same time, it would boost by $13 million another HRSA-run program, the Loan Repayment and Scholarship Program.

The advanced nursing program provides grants and training opportunities to about 12,000 students seeking graduate nursing degrees or to secure places on nursing school faculties, according to AACN. The nurse loan and repayment program provides financial assistance to those training to become entry-level nurses.

In a recent statement on the administration proposal, AACN President Jeanette Lancaster said, “Focusing solely on funding the education of new nurses will not work as an effective solution to the nursing shortage since schools are already limited in the number of students they can accept due to an insufficient supply of nurse educators.”

According to AACN, a total of 42,596 qualified applicants were turned away from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs primarily because of a lack of nurse educators. A limited number of graduate students and an expected “wave” of faculty retirements will add to the faculty shortage, AACN said.

Congress should focus on continuing funding for the Advanced Education Nursing Programs while increasing funding for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, Lancaster said.

“I simply don’t understand how the administration can propose slashing workforce education ... when HRSA’s own studies confirm that the nursing shortage will continue to grow if current trends prevail,” said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., at a Feb. 6 hearing on the Health and Human Services budget by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

According to AACN, HRSA data show that the supply of registered nurses will drop 29 percent below demand by 2020 unless steps are taken to increase the number of nurses entering the workforce.

HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt defended the proposed cut at the Feb. 6 hearing, saying that “the grants that were being offered that we are proposing to be reduced [the Government Accountability Office] believed, and we believe, weren’t the best way to expend those dollars.” Leavitt added that “investing in the development of basic nurse infrastructure is an important” effort.

“You do understand that we do have to have some kind of faculty prepared?” Capps queried.

“Well, we obviously do, ... but I’m not sure that we ought to be dependent completely on the large medical nursing school method,” Leavitt replied. “We’ve got to find ways that will produce more nurses,” he said, agreeing with Capps that “this is probably a conversation for another day” rather than the wide-ranging hearing.

AACN said in congressional testimony last year that the $150 million spent on HRSA’s Nursing Workforce Development Programs, of which the Advanced Education Nursing Program is a part, “is insufficient to address the severity of the nursing shortage.”

During the 1974 nursing shortage, Congress appropriated $153 million on nursing education programs, AACN said. “Translated into today’s dollars, that appropriation would total $615 million, more than four times the current level. However, it will take billions to resolve today’s nursing shortage.”

Under the administration’s fiscal 2008 proposal, funding for HRSA’s Workforce Development Programs would be trimmed to $105 million.