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The Alaska Nurse Circulation 8,000 to every Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse and Student Nurse in Alaska Volume 55 No. 2
The Official Publication of the Alaska Nurses Association
BILL TO PROHIBIT MANDATORY OVERTIME INTRODUCED On April 15 State Representative Peggy Wilson, RN of Wrangell, introduced a bill that would prohibit mandatory overtime for nurses. According to John Bitney, the AaNA lobbyist, HB271 was referred to the Labor & Commerce Committee, then HESS and Finance. The title of the bill is “An Act relating to limitations on overtime for registered nurses in health care facilities and providing for an effective date.” According to Representative Wilson’s sponsor statement, the bill would “prohibit an employer from assigning mandatory overtime and from threatening or retaliating against a nurse who refuses overtime. It will also give nurses the latitude to make the judgment call about whether or not they are safe to practice (work overtime).” The bill would not affect voluntary overtime hours. The Alaska Nurses Association worked with nurses from the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and the AaNA Labor Council to draft the bill sponsored by Rep. Wilson. Introduction of this bill follows a national trend. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is supporting a federal bill introduced in February called the Safe Nursing and Patient Care Act of 2005, a bill introduced by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) and Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) that would strictly limit the practice of forcing nurses to work overtime. The proposed legislation would address the current nurse staffing crisis in the U.S. by strictly limiting mandatory overtime among nurses, according to ANA, a dangerous practice that has contributed to a recent exodus of nurses from the nation’s hospitals and a decline in safe, quality patient care. ANA has been at the forefront of the push for this legislation and worked collaboratively on its
development with members of Congress and other organizations representing nurses. “Study after study has shown that the use of forced overtime among nurses endangers nurses and their patients,” said ANA President Barbara Blakeney, MS, RN. “The Safe Nursing and Patient Care Act would prevent health care facilities from forcing exhausted nurses to work extra shifts, an unsafe practice that puts both patients and nurses at risk,” she added. As evidence, Blakeney pointed to “The Working Hours of Hospital Staff Nurses and Patient Safety,” a study published in the July/August 2004 issue of Health Affairs, which found that the risk of making an error greatly increased when nurses worked shifts longer than 12 hours, when they worked significant overtime or when they worked more than 40 hours per week. This study reinforced findings of the 2003 Institute of Medicine Report, “Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses,” which found that nurses’ long working hours pose a serious threat to patient safety. Note from the editor: By the time you receive this issue, the legislative session will have been long over. HB 271 will not be fully acted upon this session but we expect the House HESS committee to hold hearings on the bill over the summer in Anchorage and elsewhere, placing the proposed legislation in a strong position for passage in 2006. If you want to be informed of hearing dates, times and places, email the AaNA at aknurse@ aknurse.org. Here is a web link to the Alaskan bill text: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/PDF/ 24/Bills/HB0271A.PDF
May 2005
Nurses at Work Page 3
Alaska Statewide Nurses Conference Page 6
Spotlight on Critical CARE, Inc. Page 7
Inside This Issue Bill to Prohibit Mandatory Overtime . . . . . . . . 1 AaNA Supports ACLU’s Fight to Keep Nurses’ Addresses Private . . . . . . . . . 1 President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Nurses at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Alaska Nurses in the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Health and Safety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Nursing Negligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
AaNA Supports ACLU’s Fight to Keep Nurses’ Addresses Private—And We Need Your Help! The ACLU of Alaska Foundation has filed a class action lawsuit, on behalf of Alaskan nurses, against the Department for Occupational Licensing demanding that the department no longer post nurses’ personal addresses on the website or make them available to the public. The AaNA Board of Directors has adopted the below policy statement and is working with the ACLU to recruit nurses to support this case. What nurses can do 1. Join the lawsuit means you would civil case. There participate as the
as a plaintiff. This add your name to the is no cost to you to case is being worked
on pro bono by the ACLU of Alaska and the law firm of Patton Boggs. You may, however, be required to take some time off work to testify in a deposition or possibly in court, although this case is likely to be resolved without a trial. There is also no money that you would potentially win from this case. 2. Provide your statement about reasons you do not want to have your address posted on the website. Of particular interest are concerns about your safety or about actual events which caused concern relating to the information being readily accessible to the public. Continued on page 3
AaNA Organizational Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Save These Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Spotlight on Critical CARE, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Membership Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 New Products/Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Congratulations New Graduates . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The AaNA Vision Empowering Alaska nurses to be dynamic leaders, powerful in both the health care and political communities.