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AT THE CAPITOL 2022 on the Hill Recap The lead-up to session MNA hit the legislative action planning hard this session with the goal of utilizing our legislative work to build pressure through the parallel campaign structure for contract bargaining and vice versa. Bringing policy and contract language that mirrored each other to the table and the legislature enabled MNA to share strong messaging and build a powerful campaign for safe staffing and nurse retention policies. This also forced hospital management and the MN Hospital Association to split their time and energy as they had to respond and lobby against us at both places. Knowing that the parallel campaign would only be successful if nurse members directed the work, the Governmental Affairs Commission determined two main buckets for legislative priorities: safe staffing and the anti-corporatization of healthcare. With safe staffing as one of the main priorities, staff began the work to organize members of the negotiating teams for a member staffing workgroup. With session fast approaching, the member staffing workgroup met six times between November and January and crafted the Keeping the Nurses at the Bedside Act (KNABA), legislation that focuses on safe hospital staffing and nurse retention. The Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act would address the crisis of understaffing and retention in Minnesota hospitals with the following provisions: • Establish Nurse Staffing Committees at Minnesota Hospitals – The bill would require all hospitals in the state of
Minnesota to create a staffing committee to put together a core staffing plan for each unit of the facility every year, including a maximum limit on the number of patients that any one nurse should safely care for. • Recruit and Train Nursing Students – This bill would dedicate new resources to ensure we continue to attract and train a skilled and diverse workforce of Registered Nurses in Minnesota. This includes broadening an existing student loan forgiveness program for new
nursing instructors and allocating $5 million to launch a new student loan forgiveness program for nurses working at the bedside in Minnesota hospitals. • Retain and Sustain Minnesota Nurses – The bill provides an annual appropriation of $50,000 for the Minnesota Department of Health to develop and implement violence prevention strategies for nurses and patients in Minnesota hospitals. • Support Mental Health for Healthcare Workers – This bill would provide yearly $1 million
