White House touts health law’s benefits for nurses in new report

The 2010 healthcare law is benefiting nurses and helping to cure nursing shortages, the Obama administration says in a new report to be released on Monday. 

The report’s release coincides with the start of National Nurses Week and comes as President Obama launches his reelection effort with special attention to healthcare issues. 

{mosads}The campaign launched a nursing-specific initiative — Nurses for Obama — in March. 

“Thanks to the President’s new healthcare law, there will be significantly more nurses to help make our healthcare system stronger,” White House official Cecilia Munoz writes in a blog post. 

Munoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, touted the Affordable Care Act’s investment in a range of training programs for nurses. 

One effort is funded by the law’s preventive healthcare fund, the report stated.  

“The Obama administration is committed to educating new nurses, improving the training of today’s nurses, and placing nurses in the parts of the country where they are needed most,” she writes. 

The law’s benefits, according to the report, include a 20 percent boost in nursing positions at community health centers and an expansion of “nurse-managed” clinics, which serve as training venues for nursing students. 

The law also nearly tripled the size of the National Health Services Corps — offering scholarships and loan repayment to nurses who agree to work in underserved areas — between 2009 and 2011. 

Nearly 2,000 new Corps members work “to not only treat illness or injury, but also keep people healthy,” the report states.