NYSUT Health Care members will be in Albany May 11-12 to lobby for three key bills: safe staffing; a school nurse in every school building; and prohibiting mandatory overtime for home health care workers. Anne Goldman, chair of the Health Care Professionals Council, is scheduled to appear on the Susan Arbetter Radio Show. Add your voice to the effort by using the links above to send MAC letters to lawmakers in support of the key health care bills.
The following bills are the focus of the health care professionals lobby day:
Safe Staffing Ratios for Quality Care Act
A.1548 Gottfried (Passes)/S.782 Hannon (Health):
- Requires that applications for an acute care facility include a staffing plan for registered nurses.
- Establishes minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
- Requires mandatory compliance with staffing plans.
- Establishes increased civil penalties for noncompliance.
- Sets standards for public disclosure of staffing standards.
(MOT) Hours Worked by Home Care Nurses
A.1127 Gunther (Labor)/S.3100 Ritchie (Labor):
- Restricts consecutive hours of required work by nurses in the home-care setting except in the case of an emergency; does not prohibit a nurse from voluntarily working overtime.
- When the anti-mandatory overtime bill was signed into law (Ch.493 of the laws of 2008), home-care nurses were unjustly excluded. This legislation seeks to grant them the same protections against mandatory overtime abuse that other New York state nurses enjoy.
Minimum School Nurse Staffing Standards
A.1497 Gunther (Education)/S.1755 Robach (Education):
- Requires the NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers and Syracuse school districts to employ at least one school nurse per school building.
- Requires each district to consult with a professional nursing association to determine the need for additional staff beyond the one-nurse minimum.