Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Rep. Jen Kiggans is leading an early effort in the new Congress to address health care worker shortages with a bill first shared with Axios.
Why it matters: The availability of doctors, nurses and other health professionals remains a major issue in some areas, with ranks thinned by excessive workloads, administrative burdens and lingering fallout from the pandemic.
What's inside: Kiggans' bill would enable nurses who serve as clinical preceptors to receive a $2,000 tax credit. A preceptor is a clinician who teaches and coaches nursing students during their rotations.
- The goal is to incentivize clinicians to train more nursing students to enter the workforce.
- The preceptors have to work at least 200 hours in a designated area that's experiencing a shortage of workers, and the program would run through 2032.
Other bill sponsors are Reps. Claudia Tenney, Dave Joyce and Jim Costa. A bipartisan companion bill is due to be introduced in the Senate this week, Kiggans' office said.
Between the lines: Kiggans, who is entering her second term, is one of the newer members of Congress who is trying to make her name in the health policy space.
- She's a geriatric nurse practitioner and vice chair of the Congressional Nursing Caucus. She introduced five other nurse-related bills in the 118th Congress.
- Kiggans also represents a competitive swing district in Virginia.
Editor's note: The story was updated to reflect a late change to the bill text that extends the program through 2032.
