WVNA Legislative Updates for Feb 12, 2020

The majority of our HP and L call on Feb 11th was action planning for the WVNA Patient Staffing and Transparency Act that has been introduced in the House and the Senate.   The WVNA board and HP and L committee have been working to gather support in both the House and Senate for these bills.  As most members are aware, the WVNA has generated an anonymous survey to better assist us with determining the severity of acute care staffing deficiencies here in West Virginia.  You can find a link to your “WV Acute Care Nurse Staffing” survey HERE.  These surveys are providing us with real-life nursing stories so we encourage everyone to please take a few minutes to complete the survey and then share with your fellow acute care nurses.  Watch for a bulleted list of talking points to help keep our communication focused and accurate while speaking with your legislators. 

We will be calling on WVNA Legislative Leaders to help us reach out with talking points and contacting their legislators directly.  Stay tuned for this action. 

• SB 719: WVNA Patient Safety and Transparency Act. Read about SB 715 here. This bill will allow facilities to establish staff-based RN committees to determine appropriate, acuity-based nurse to patient ratio’s.  The facilities would also be responsible to post their daily nurse to patient ratio’s in each unit, thereby providing transparency to the public and place nurses on staffing committees. 

Lead Sponsor: Senator Lindsey, Sponsors, Senator Romono  

The bill is currently in the Senate health committee, waiting to be placed on the agenda.

• HB  4799: WVNA Patient Safety and Transparency Act. Read about HB4799 here. This bill will allow facilities to establish staff-based RN committees to determine appropriate, acuity-based nurse to patient ratio’s. The facilities would also be responsible to post their daily nurse to patient ratio’s in each unit, thereby providing transparency to the public and place nurses on staffing committees. 

      Lead Sponsor: Delegate Summers, Sponsors Delegate Ellington, Delegate Fast and Delegate Fleischauer (more Delegates want to sign on). 

The bill is currently in the House Health Committee.

Watch for WVNA Call to action alerts and prepare your scrubs to come to the capitol!