RN-Lawmaker Hopes to Help Fix Shortage
Friday May 4, 2001
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Lois Capps says she draws on her nursing training every day in Congress.
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Capps was sworn in as a freshman member of the 105th Congress March 17, 1998, after a special election to succeed her late husband, Congressman Walter Capps. She was reelected to her second full term in office November 7, 2000, and she continues to represent California's central coast.
"As a nurse in Congress, I'm so sensitive to healthcare issues," Capps says. "I'm at a unique vantage point. Every day I draw upon my nurse's training - I use everything I learned in nursing school." Currently, her vision and passion are being channeled into designing legislation that will help ease the nation's shortage of RNs.
"I value where nurses are today," Capps says. "They deal with life and death issues every day. I also know that nurses are compassionate. They'll work those double-shifts over and over, and unfortunately, it's resulting in problems. It's harder to recruit into our field and even harder to retain good staff."
Capps serves on the powerful Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Subcommitee on Health, Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. From this post, she continues to focus on Medicare reform, patients' rights, mental health, the environment, and telecommunications issues.
Capps has been a leader for commonsense healthcare and education reforms for years. During her 20-year tenure as an RN and advocate for the Santa Barbara School District, thousands of California children and families benefited from Capps' care and leadership. For example, as director of Santa Barbara County's Teen Pregnancy and Parenting Project and the Parent and Child Enrichment Center, she gave young parents the support and encouragement to stay in school while providing them with critical child-development information to help ensure their children grew up in healthy, loving environments. Capps also taught for 10 years as a part-time instructor of early childhood education at Santa Barbara City College.
Capps now draws on this extensive healthcare background as cochair of the House Democratic Task Force on Medicare, where she played a leading role in the development of Medicare reform policy. In addition, she's the founder and cochair of the bipartisan Congressional School Health and Safety Caucus, which educates House members and staff about important issues, such as playground safety, school sports safety, nutrition in schools, immunizations, and the role of the school nurse.
Capps cochairs the bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues' Education Task Force and is also a member of several other House organizations. These include the bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Task Force, the Budget Task Force, the Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health, the Prescription Drug Task Force, the Diabetes Caucus, Congressional Caucus on the Arts, the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, and the Research and Development Caucus.
After varied and extensive experience in government, Capps encourages nurses to get involved and make change happen, no matter where they are.
"Times have changed, and I come from a generation that was comfortable being in the professional background - but I learned that meant I didn't have a voice in the outcome," she says. "We need to be at the decision-making table. Get involved at work or run for the school board and help better our world. Nurses are 2.2 million strong. We can change things dramatically. This is a chance for us to make it work."
Capps graduated with honors from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, with a BSN. She worked as a nursing instructor in Portland, OR, then earned a master of arts degree in religion from Yale University while working as a head nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition, she earned a master of arts degree in education from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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