NEW YORK NURSE: July/August 2011

2010-11 Legislative wrap-up

by Erin Silk

Although the 2010-11 legislative session was a challenging one for nursing, there was progress as important legislation moved in both houses and the threatened suspension of the Disclosure Law was avoided.

Disclosure spared

In a major lobbying effort lasting several weeks, NYSNA successfully opposed the suspension of the Nursing Care Quality Protection Act (Disclosure). New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed suspending the law as part of a package of spending cuts, but this proposal would not have saved the state money and would have robbed the public of access to critical quality health indicators. The Nursing Care Quality Protection Act (Public Health Law 2805t) requires hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic and treatment centers to disclose specific information concerning nursing quality indicators, staffing and complaints made against the facility.

“We are pleased that the legislature recognized that patients must continue to have access to the information that influences their care,” said Shaun Flynn, NYSNA’s director of Governmental Affairs.

Movement in the legislature

The following priorities saw movement in the legislature and are still in play for the upcoming session:

Safe Patient Handling (A1370-A/S2470-A) passed the Assembly for the first time ever on June 15. It ended session in the Senate Rules Committee. This bill would establish a task force to set safe patient handling policies for all healthcare facilities in New York.
Safe Staffing Ratios (A921/S4553) progressed to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and ended the session in that committee. In the Senate, it was reported out of the Health Committee for the first time and into Finance where it remained at the close of session. This bill would establish the safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios that help decrease adverse patient events and rates of nursing staff turnover.
Educational Advancement for Nursing (A1977-B/S2553-A) was left in the Higher Education Committees for both the Assembly and Senate. This legislation would require future professional nurses to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing within ten years of initial licensure.
Healthy Workplace (A4258/S4289) was a new bill introduced this session and was referred to the Labor Committee in both the Assembly and the Senate.