Comments by Janice Reynolds on Robert Pear's article

One thing that bothered me in this article that wasn't picked up in the Center's commentary is the blurring of the licensed nurse and the nursing assistant.

The academy said the nation's 2.8 million licensed nurses and 2.3 million nursing assistants accounted for 54 percent of health care workers. Thus, said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, "It is nurses who deliver most of the care we receive." This seems to imply both are Nurses.

Alan E. DeFend, vice president of the American Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, said: "The shortage of nursing assistants has reached crisis proportions. Sometimes there's just no alternative to overtime." This is stuck into an article about Nurses. I think the world of CNA's but why was this even mentioned in this article?

Janice Reynolds RN, BSN, OCN
Mid Coast Hospital
Brunswick, Maine