STAND. COM. REP. NO.511

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 1034

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Higher Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1034 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NURSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to establish and appropriate moneys for the Nursing Scholarship Program (Program) to satisfy the growing demand for nurses in the State of Hawaii.

The State Health Planning and Development Agency, Queens Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, Hawaii Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Executives, Hawaii Government Employees Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, and various nurses testified in support of this measure.

The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) testified in support of the intent of this measure but felt that it was not the appropriate agency to administer this Program. Furthermore, DBEDT stated that it had neither the staff nor the intake and funds recovery personnel to manage such a Program.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this bill by:

(1) Designating the Department of Health (DOH) as the responsible agency for the administration and oversight of this Program;

(2) Requiring DOH to establish lists of approved courses of study for the various types of approved educational institutions to be addressed by the Program;

(3) Establishing refund policy time frames of the various approved institutions of learning;

(4) Amending the appropriation to establish and implement the Program to $1 to facilitate further discussion;

(5) Inserting an appropriation to be used for the funding of additional faculty required for the Program; and

(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1034, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1034, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Higher Education,

____________________________

ROY TAKUMI, Chair

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DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair