title: Addressing the nursing workforce: a critical element for health reform.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: AARP in Washington, D.C., USA. jrother@aarp.org
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rother
authors.forename: Risa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lavizzo-Mourey
mesh_terms: D004471:Economics, Nursing; D018166:Health Care Reform; D009726:Nurses / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009729:Nursing / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce