The Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Finance of the United States Senate met to examine the U.S. nursing shortage crisis which is adversely affecting the health care of all Americans, but particularly the elderly who consume a disproportionate share of health care services. It was intended to solicit views and recommendations from interested groups on ways to address this crisis, including possible changes in the medicare teaching adjustment to hospitals. Opening statements were heard from Senators George J. Mitchell, David Durenburger, John D. Rockefeller IV, and John H. Chafee. Public witnesses include the following people: Barbara Curtis, American Nurses' Association, Inc.; Jan Towers, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners; Christine Zambricki, Mount Carmel Hospital, Detroit, Michigan; Charles D. Jenkins, Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland; Margaret J. Cushman, the VNA Group, Inc., Waterbury/Hartford, Connecticut; Paul R. Willging, American Health Care Association; Nancy P. Greenleaf, University of Southern Maine, School of Nursing; and Nelville E. Strumpf, Gerontological Nurse Clinician Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. (SM)