Durbin Meets with Illinois Health & Hospital Association
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today sat down with AJ Wilhelmi, President of the Illinois Health & Hospital Association (IHA), and leaders of Illinois-based hospitals to discuss the health care workforce staffing crisis and its impact on hospitals’ ability to serve the needs of patients. To help address the shortage, Durbin secured $1 billion in theAmerican Rescue Plan for scholarship and loan repayment awards through the National Health Service Corps and Nurse Corps to build a more diverse pipeline of clinicians and recruit more doctors, nurses, dentists, and behavioral health providers to serve in urban and rural shortage areas. To ensure that more nursing professionals can enter the workforce, Durbin also introduced the bipartisan Nurse Faculty Shortage Reduction Act to provide a federal wage differential for the salary gap between clinical nursing and nurse faculty roles – to help fill desperately needed nurse faculty positions across the country and educate more nurses.
During their meeting, Durbin and Mr. Wilhelmi also touched on community engagement efforts through the Chicago HEAL Initiative, a collaboration between major Chicago hospitals to make tangible commitments to reduce gun violence, heal the physical and mental trauma that violence inflicts on victims, increase well-paying jobs, and create other economic opportunities in the neighborhoods these hospitals serve.
“Illinoisans rely on their health care providers to offer the best care possible in their time of need. But without adequate support and resources, health care workers are being stretched thin, and our hospitals are facing shortages,” said Durbin. “Today, I spoke with IHA President AJ Wilhelmi, and I reiterated my commitment to support the health care workforce and ensure that patients receive proper care.”
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