STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 334-22
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2022
RE: H.B. No. 2220
H.D. 1
Honorable Scott K. Saiki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2022
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Higher Education & Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 2220 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NURSING,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i State Center for Nursing, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing, East Hawaii Region of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Hawai‘i State Rural Health Association, Hawai‘i Pacific Health, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Association of Nurse Anesthetists, and seven individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.
Your Committee finds that this measure would allow schools to hire the instructors needed to fill the teaching gaps of today, provide for the time necessary to re-evaluate staffing structures to meet the teaching and nurse-training needs of the future, and ensure that currently enrolled students have access to the in-person clinical instruction needed to produce high-quality new graduates in nursing.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;
(2) Changing its effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
Your Committee respectfully requests that should your Committee on Finance choose to hear this measure, it consider appropriating $1,800,000 to increase the State's capacity to train new nurses and project future nursing workforce needs. Your Committee notes that it is estimated that an appropriation of $1,800,000 would provide for thirty-nine nursing instructors to teach approximately two hundred forty nursing students at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, and several of the community colleges within the University of Hawai‘i System.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education & Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2220, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2220, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education & Technology,
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____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair |