Addressing the nursing workforce: a critical element for health reform

Fundamental health reform is integral to putting the country on the path to economic recovery. These goals-health reform and economic recovery-will not be met unless we build, empower, and deploy a twenty-first-century health care workforce. A reformed health care system must include an adequate supply of well-trained professionals who can deliver care to all Americans. Nurses are at the center of this discussion. It is nurses-of every stripe-who will deliver, coordinate, and direct care in hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices, and it is these same most necessary nurses who are in short supply.