NEW YORK STATE -- “We have a grave nursing shortage in this country. In New York State, we have over 100,000 nurses that will be needed in the next ten years that we don't have,” said Gillibrand.

“Not surprising at all,” said Seth Gordon, Nurse Practitioner Association of NY President-CEO.

To help fill the gap, the Nurse Practitioner Association of New York State hopes the legislature will act on a bill that, if passed, could allow nurse practitioners to practice without the collaboration of a physician.

“With the critical shortage of nursing and the availability of nurse practitioners to fill primary care needs is absolutely essential,” said Gordon.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says another solution doesn't start in the hospital. It starts in the classroom.

“What we need to do is have more trainers, more teachers who are willing to teach nursing,” said Gillibrand.

To get there, she wants to create a program to help nursing faculty repay their student loans and a federal grant to encourage schools to create more faculty openings and more seats in the classroom. That is something the Sage Colleges in the Capital Region are already doing.

“We've opened up a brand new doctor of nursing science program in the last year. And we've got to all work together to maintain the quality healthcare especially for our citizens of New York State,” said Glenda Kelman, Sage Colleges Nursing Department Chair.

For citizens in under-served areas, Gillibrand wants to create incentives to attract new nurses to those communities.

The need for nurses will only be increased by President Obama's health care overhaul that would cover millions of Americans who, currently, don't have insurance.

The debate seems to be focused on how the nation would pay for such reforms, Gillibrand saying they'll pay for themselves.

“It gets people into this preventive care system, which is going to lower costs for everyone overall,” said Gillibrand.

Earlier this week, Obama urged Congress to pay for increases in health care programs by raising taxes or coming up with budget cuts, a "pay-as-you-go" system.

Senate Democrats are set to start committee work on health care reform next week.