NCC thanks Underwood for introducing bill to strengthen nursing education

AONL and 56 other members of the Nursing Community Coalition thanked Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., for introducing the Educating Future Nurses Act (H.R. 10410). The bill would establish a National Graduate Nurse Education Program to create a permanent funding stream within the Medicare program to promote partnerships between schools of nursing, hospitals and community-based care settings to bolster the clinical training of advanced practice registered nurses. The legislation builds on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration, which ran from 2012 to 2018. Nursing schools participating in the demonstration saw average APRN enrollment and graduation increases of 54% and 67% per year compared with non-participating schools. The NCC encourages Congress to pass the bill this year. (Nursing Community Coalition letter, 10/29/26)