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By Todd Zwillich

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) – Nurses and hospitals will have to wait at least until next year for a legislative solution to the nation's nursing shortage, key members of Congress told Reuters Health on Tuesday.

Lawmakers have been looking at several bills designed to attack the nursing crisis on multiple fronts. But with Congress's attention focused on America's new war on terrorism, federal help for the profession is unlikely to come before lawmakers reconvene in 2002.

"Given the shortened calendar we expect, the prospects for doing something in a hurry is not very good," said Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee. The committee has jurisdiction over government policy on medical and nursing training, an area of reform most experts agree is key to solving the shortage.

"I understand that this is going to be put off," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat and former nurse who is sponsoring several bills addressing the nursing crisis.

Multiple surveys have shown dire shortfalls in nurse staffing across the country. A study conducted by the American Hospital Association showed that 75% of approximately 170,000 job vacancies at American hospitals are for registered nurses. Experts expect the problem to worsen as record numbers of Americans retire and the nursing population itself ages.

Ideas on how to address the problem abound on Capitol Hill. Nurses groups and unions maintain that poor working conditions, including safety problems and excessive overtime, are driving down retention of qualified nurses. Low staffing levels are often blamed.

"An exhausted nurse is more likely to commit a medical error than a nurse who is not being required to work a 16- to 20-hour shift," American Nursing Association president Mary Foley said at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) pegged the problem on poor hospital working conditions. While hospitals will probably see higher reimbursement rates at some point, slightly higher nursing salaries will not solve the problem, he said in an interview.

"If the job is no good, they're not going to stay there not matter what" the pay, said Miller, the Education and Workforce Committee's senior Democrat.

Hospitals argue that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cuts stemming from the 1997 Balanced Budget Act have squeezed their ability to pay and retain qualified nurses. Congress has passed several financial "giveback" bills over the years to compensate for some of the cuts.

"Most of the cuts have not been restored," said George Lynn, who testified at the hearing for the American Hospital Association.

Some bills circulating in Congress seek to create tax incentives for young nurses or to provide federal grants to nurses who agree to work in areas with shortages. Other measures would ban mandatory overtime for nurses or increase hospital reimbursement rates so that facilities could increase salaries and boost employment numbers.

But few observers expect a fix to be quick or easy.

"There are a lot of options thrown on the table," Boehner said. "Much of this needs to be distilled" before Congress acts, he said.