This week, I am pleased to honor National Nurses Week, an established recognition event created to pay tribute to the nurses who give care to millions of patients every day. National Nurses Week is celebrated every year beginning May 6 and ending May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday. "Nurses: Lifting Spirits, Touching Lives" is the theme for 2003.

As a nurse for over 30 years, I am proud to be part of such a caring and compassionate group of professionals. And as a member of Congress, I have the wonderful opportunity of fighting for issues and policies that affect nurses and the nursing profession.

A major national issue concerning the nursing profession is the growing nursing shortage. With various new career options for healthcare professionals today, prompting nurses to gradually move away from patient care and into fields with better pay and benefits, nurses are grappling with becoming financially competitive.

Of the estimated 2.5 million licensed nurses in our country, 400,000 have left the profession for other pursuits. In 2000, Long Island had an 8 percent RN vacancy rate and a 16 percent LPN vacancy rate. Nationwide, hospitals need more than 125,000 nurses to fill all the nursing positions available today.

Over the past few years, I have been successful in educating my colleagues on both sides of the aisle about the importance of addressing the nursing shortage. It is vital for the health of this nation that the nursing field continues attracting experienced and educated candidates.

To that end, I played a lead role in the passage of H.R. 1436, the Nurse Reinvestment Act, last year. This critical piece of legislation combines my own bill to provide money for Magnet Hospitals Accreditation and another bill I offered to retain and attract nurses.

Magnet Hospitals enjoy low turnover and top-notch work conditions. Nurses at magnet hospitals consistently report greater job satisfaction than other nurses, and patients also give these types of hospitals high ratings. Attracting more nurses to move into positions at Magnet Hospitals will both lower the nursing shortage and help the profession remain competitive with other health care fields.

Although last year's legislation is a good start, more needs to be done to find ways to recruit more young people to the nursing profession. That is why earlier this year, I introduced H.R. 934, the Teachers and Nurses Support Act of 2003. This bill provides loan forgiveness for teachers and nurses around the country. I want to encourage every student that nursing, in my view, is the best profession in the world. This legislation would help eliminate financial barriers to pursuing a nursing career.

In closing, I urge my fellow nurses to tell friends, children and neighbors about all the positive aspects of being a nurse. We need to excite our students in high school and junior high about our career choice and how nurses are always there to help the sick get better and to make sure the healthy stay that way.