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Washington, D.C. — American nurses should be recognized as professional, autonomous health care providers, and they should be better compensated, Hawaii Sen. Daniel K. Inouye told the 2001 graduating class of the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies.
Fifty-four students received diplomas at the May 26 ceremony, including the first 15 graduates of the school's Health Studies track, which was instituted in 1998 to meet the changing needs of the 21st-century health care system.
No stranger to health care providers and hospitals, Inouye told the graduates about being wounded in 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, and the long rehabilitation process that followed.
"Medical doctors were highly professional, but I saw them once a week," Inouye said. "It was then I began to realize that nurses are very independent and very professional. And this, incidentally, led to my campaign in the Congress to make nurses autonomous and independent providers of health care services."
Inouye's efforts on nursing's behalf included spearheading a campaign to have nurses recognized as autonomous, professional providers of health care, and lobbying the entertainment industry to have nurses portrayed in a more professional—and realistic—light.
Despite recent advances, there are still battles to be fought, Inouye said, pointing out that many anesthesiologists believe that nurse anesthetists should be required to provide their services under the supervision of a medical doctor. "Who do you think provides anesthesia in the Alleghenies, in rural America, and in the impoverished parts of the United States?" Inouye said. "Nurse anesthetists are the sole anesthesia providers in more than 70 percent of rural hospitals in the United States, thus making anesthesia available to 70 million rural Americans."
And, Inouye said, the current nursing shortage will continue to plague the United States unless nurses are better compensated.
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