The U.S. healthcare reform law (OBAMACARE) passed in March is expected to add 32 million Americans to health insurance company rolls. Several groups, including the Institute of Medicine, have forecast shortages of doctors to provide care.
Last month, the Association of American Medical Colleges released new estimates that showed 63,000 more doctors would be needed in 2015 than would be available.
"We evaluated the evidence which has been accumulating now for decades as to the capability of nurses to bridge that gap," said Dr. John Rowe of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, one of the report's authors.
"There have been concerns in the past that nurses could provide the quality and safety for some areas of primary care. The committee concluded that it was very clear from the evidence that nurses can very effectively and safely ... deliver those primary care services."
The United States has more than 3 million nurses, making them the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce, said the nonpartisan institute, which advises the federal government on medical matters.
It said that states, federal agencies, and healthcare organizations should remove so-called "scope of practice" barriers that limit what nurses may do.
"We really need to use nurses to their full potential," Shalala said.
By 2020, 80 percent of nurses should have a bachelor's degree at least, and 10 percent of them should go on to get a doctorate degree, the report recommends. Many nurses now practice with a two-year certificate.
