Nursing Dean to serve on national council addressing physician and nurse supply

College of Nursing Dean Kathleen Ann Long is among a select group of national health-care leaders named to the newly created Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, which will address the growing problem of nurse and physician shortages. Council members will monitor data and act as advocates for change, advising legislators and others on ways the supply of nurses and physicians can be altered to meet the public's needs.

Council co-chairs are Richard "Buz" Cooper, M.D., and UF nursing alumna Linda Aiken, Ph.D., R.N., both professors at the University of Pennsylvania. The council is based in the University of Pennsylvania's Consortium for Health Workforce Research and Policy, a joint program of the schools of Nursing and Medicine and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

The council's goals are to bring objectivity to the study of physician and nurse supply and to shape public policy. Council members will examine a range of domestic and international issues that must be addressed as the United States attempts to better align its health-care workforce with its future health-care needs. It is the only multidisciplinary organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to addressing issues of nurse and physician supply.

Council members represent universities across the country as well as with major hospitals and health-care organizations.