WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-OH, held a press conference call to discuss his recently passed Technical Reset to Advance the Instruction of Nurses or TRAIN Act.

Brown was joined on the call by Nate Brandstater, the president of Kettering College, a health care college in Kettering that offers affordable and career-focused medical degrees. The TRAIN Act, which Brown introduced with Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, R-WV, was signed into law by President Biden in December as part of the omnibus funding bill.

The TRAIN Act will help strengthen the healthcare workforce and help address nursing shortages in Ohio and nationally by investing in and protecting existing hospital-based nursing and allied health professional training programs.

“The TRAIN Act means that schools like Kettering can continue to focus on the most important part oxf their mission: educating and training our next generation of nurses,” said Brown. “The more we do to strengthen our nursing schools and support the hospital-based training programs across Ohio, the more we do to alleviate the existing nursing shortage and strengthen our health care workforce.”

Nurses and other allied health professionals who are educated and receive their training at hospital-based programs provide high-quality care to communities across the country, including areas facing nursing shortages. The TRAIN Act would protect hospital-based nursing schools and other allied health programs across the country from funding claw backs, protecting the integrity of hospital-based nursing schools and ensuring our hospital-based training programs have the resources they need to train the next generation of nurses and allied health professionals.

Specifically, the TRAIN Act will prohibit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from recouping payments made to hospital-based nursing schools and other allied health training programs in the past. Brown worked with Capito and other colleagues in Congress to include the TRAIN Act in the final fiscal year 2023 funding bill.

“The TRAIN Act provides critical relief for health care education and training programs at a time of great need for nursing and allied health professionals to enter the workforce,” said Brandstater. “On behalf of Kettering College and the many hospital-affiliated nursing and allied health education and training programs throughout Ohio and across the country, I am grateful for the leadership of Senator Brown and his staff to advocate for the passage of the TRAIN Act.”

In addition to Kettering College, the TRAIN Act will also help support other hospital-based nursing programs and their students across Ohio.