NURSING PERSONNEL QUALIFICATION STANDARDS.

SEC. 305. NURSING PERSONNEL QUALIFICATION STANDARDS. (a) Revision.— The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall conduct a review of the qualification standards used for nursing personnel at Department health-care facilities and the relationship between those standards and the compression of nursing personnel in the existing intermediate and senior grades. Based upon that review, the Secretary shall revise those qualification standards— (1) to reflect the five grade levels for nursing personnel under the Nurse Schedule, as amended by section 301; and (2) to reduce the compression of nursing personnel in the existing intermediate and senior grades. (b) Deadline For Prescribing Standards.— The Secretary shall prescribe revised qualification standards for nursing personnel pursuant to subsection (a) not later than six months after the date of the enactment of this Act. (c) Report.— The Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report on the Secretary’s findings and actions under this section. The report shall be submitted not later than six months after the date on which revised qualification standards for nursing personnel are prescribed pursuant to subsection (b).