The Voice of Nursing Leadership in Pennsylvania |
Take Action! What YOU can do to help! Contact the Honorable Michele Brooks at one of the addresses below and mention some the examples below: · Appreciation for her commitment—which you share—to ensuring that all Pennsylvanians can access high-quality health care. · Recognition of her understanding of the complexity of the nursing profession and that one-size-fits-all staffing mandates do not work. · A note about how you’re trying to attract/grow additional nurses and why it’s hard, given current workforce challenges. · Specific examples of how the current workforce emergency is already impacting care in your community — closing beds, increasing wait times, discontinuing services — and how mandated staffing could make it worse. · A request not to move HB 106 out of committee. |
The Honorable Michele Brooks Chairwoman Senate Health & Human Services Committee Senate Box 203050 Harrisburg, PA, 17120-3050 | The Honorable Michele Brooks Chairwoman Senate Health & Human Services Committee 100 Hadley Road, Suite 9 Greenville, PA 16125 |
Take Action!
As you now know, the House passed the Nurse Ratio Bill, by a vote of 119-84. Now the bill will go to the Senate and discussions could potentially begin in September. Some states that had similar deiscussions regarding ratios came away without a Ratio Bill, but rather an agreement that staffing committees would be established in their hospitals. Read the AONL Position Statement regarding staffing ratios here. We need some information from YOU! Using this link, please tell us if your hospital has a staffing committee or not - it will take you less than two minutes and will help us know how to best serve you. We welcome any additional detail you can provide us, too! During the summer I urge all of us to contact our State Senators since they could be more available at their home offices. If you do not know who your legislators are, please use this handy link to find out: Find Your Legislators. Thank you for your advocacy on this very critical issue. Please make use of the talking points supporting our stance that can be found on the Legislative page of the PONL website. If you have additional questions, please contact Rosa Hickey by email or phone at 717-487-0911. Rosa Hickey, MSN, RN, NEA-BC | PONL Legislative Committee Chair |
House HEALTH Committee Vote meeting June 6, 2023 HB106 Patient Safety Act of 2023, Sponsored by Mehaffie, Tomlinson, and Kosierowski Regular Session 2023-2024 House Bill 0106 P.N. 1462 (state.pa.us) YouTube video of live-streamed House HEALTH Committee mtg 6/6/2023: https://pahouse.com/live#Health |
Bills in the Pennsylvania Legislature during the 118th Legislative Session |
1. Nurse Staffing Practices & RatiosPONL Opposes HB 106 “The Patient Safety Act” (Mehaffie, Tomlinson & Kosierowski) & SB 247 (Senator Collett) PONL is strongly committed to nurse staffing practices that support the provision of safe patient care. PONL endorses the autonomy of each healthcare organization to establish appropriate strategies to deliver high levels of patient care by providing safe, effective, and collaborative staffing practices. PONL is adamantly opposed to any legislation that would mandate nurse-to-patient ratios for all heath care organizations. Read PONL's Position Statement on Nurse Staffing Practices & Ratios (updated April 2023). | 2. TelemedicinePONL Supports
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3. Full Practice Authority for Nurse PractitionersPONL Supports
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Workplace Violence Bills Introduced to U.S. Congress
PONL Supports
S.2768 Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act. Manchin [D-WV] & Marco [R-FL] | Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, Sept. 12, 2023
(*RATIONALE for non-support: The OSHA Mandate duplicates The Joint Commission’s Workplace Violence Prevention standard effective January 2022. These two Workplace Violence bills duplicate that which is already required. Therefore, PONL Supports the SAVE Acts.)
Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) Act 68 of 2021 Partially implemented Sept. 5, 2023
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PONL Legislative Committee Members |
Rosa Hickey, Chair
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