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Bill seeks to boost nursing workforce by supporting preceptors

Acting as mentors and teachers, preceptors can help more students enter the healthcare workforce, lawmakers say.

Jeff Lagasse, Editor

Photo: katleho Seisa/Getty Images

Lawmakers, led by Virginia Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, have introduced the PRECEPT Nurses Act, a bipartisan bill that seeks to address the country's nursing shortage by establishing a $2,000 tax credit for nurses who serve as a clinical preceptor to nursing students.

According to the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), a nurse preceptor is an experienced nurse who acts as a mentor and teacher, guiding and supervising nursing students during their clinical rotations.

By providing students with hands-on training and support, preceptors are essentially role models who help new nurses learn clinical skills and hospital protocols.

The bill's sponsors include Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., in the House, and by Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Az., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in the Senate.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Kiggans said in a statement that the ongoing nursing shortage in the U.S. is resulting in worse outcomes for patients and contributing to burnout among the existing workforce. 

To become a preceptor, nurses undergo extensive training, often at their own expense. Many cite increasing workload, burnout and lack of institutional support as reasons for not becoming a preceptor, said Kiggins.

She said the bill would incentivize more nurses to become preceptors, boosting their ranks and allowing more nursing students to receive their clinical training and enter the workforce. Requirements to become a registered nurse vary by state, but most states require several hundred hours of clinical training led by a certified nurse preceptor.

A preceptor is eligible for the tax credit if they're certified to be a preceptor and work at least 200 hours in designated health-professional shortage areas as defined by the Public Health Service Act. The program would sunset after December 31, 2032.

The bill also requires the Secretary of Treasury to report the number of taxpayers using the credit.

Kiggins herself is a board-certified Adult-Geriatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. A graduate of Old Dominion University's Nursing School and Vanderbilt University's Nurse Practitioner program, Kiggans has worked in several long-term care and nursing facilities in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, in addition to serving as a primary care provider for a small private practice in Virginia Beach.

THE LARGER TREND

At 80%, a significant majority of nurses thought 2024 would be either no better or worse for them than 2023, according to a May 2024 survey by AMN Healthcare.

Forty-two percent said 2024 would be the same for nurses as 2023, and 38% said it would be worse, while only 20% said it would be better.

In a finding that the survey found concerning, over-one third of nurses surveyed (35%) said it was extremely likely that they would change jobs in 2024. The majority (55%) said it was very likely or somewhat likely that they would do so.

ON THE RECORD

"As a geriatric nurse practitioner, I have seen how staffing shortages negatively impact patients firsthand and know how important it is for our nurses to have access to the proper training they deserve," said Kiggans. "By creating more opportunities for both existing nurses and nursing students, we can provide better, more reliable care to America's patients while preventing burnout in our healthcare workforce. I am proud to work with my colleagues across the aisle in both the House and Senate to introduce this important legislation and support nurses across our country."

Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.