Each month this year, KQED Public Radio's The California Report is hosting special statewide live discussions of health issues of importance to Californians. More than a dozen public radio stations statewide air these informative sessions, and many of them have added local programming of their own to this special project.

The last show topic was "The Nursing Shortage." Program guests included Kristine Yahn, Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive for the Kaweah Delta Health Care District in Visalia; Geri Jenkins, staff nurse at the University of California - San Diego Medical Center and a director for the California Nurses Association; and Kathleen Dracup, Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of California - San Francisco. Our special broadcast was part of Health Dialogues, an ambitious two-year special effort to look at California health issues, funded by The California Endowment.

As a California civic and legislative leader, you have made a commitment to examining and addressing health issues. We thought you would want to hear a few of the comments, summarized below, made by callers some of whom are your constituents. I am also enclosing a compact disc recording of the entire program in case you or your staff might wish to hear the conversation in context.

Here are some of the issues that surfaced during the program, which we think can be further illuminated with your ideas, suggestions and comments:

1. A caller, Susan from Redding, said she is a veteran nurse who has colleagues who have passed the state licensure exam but perform incompetently on the job. She expressed concern that the state's training programs produce nurses who are excellent on paper, but substandard in practice. Our research also indicates that proper training of nurses will likely become even more challenging in the rush to fill nursing vacancies in California's hospitals. What can California do to ensure that the nurses are well qualified to care for patients?
2. Jo Anne used to work at UCSD Medical Center until she left nursing 8 years ago after a quarter-century of experience. She wondered why there aren't state funds available for retraining nurses who want to reenter the profession. Although there is some controversy on this issue, Geri Jenkins said this potential source is well worth tapping. She said only 59% of nurses work in acute care settings. Would you support allocating additional funds to lure back nurses who have left the profession?
3. John from Santa Barbara and Dave from Sacramento both noted the importance to patient care of certified nursing assistants (CNA's) and licensed vocational nurses (LVN's). They said many CNA's and LVN's perform time consuming tasks helping patients with hygiene and activities of daily living, freeing registered nurses to do more technical duties. Because of this, and because CNA's and LVN's can be trained to perform more advanced skills, would you support funding to expand training programs for them?

These comments, along with other information about the program and the issue, will soon be available on our web site. We would be pleased to be able to add your observations to our web site -- particularly any responses to the questions above. I invite you to join this lively discussion.

The aim of Health Dialogues is to facilitate a statewide discussion on important health issues -- a conversation that brings to the table (on air and via the World Wide Web) policy makers, state officials, private sector organizations, non-profits and everyday citizens affected by health issues and policies. We believe that your observations and ideas would enrich that conversation.

Sincerely,

Raul Ramirez, Director
News and Public Affairs
KQED Public Radio