SEIU nurses leading the way, again!
SEIU Nurse Practitioners teaming up with their Registered Nurse colleagues helped pass the landmark legislation, AB 890 (Woods) that allows Nurse Practitioners to work without standardized procedures or physician supervision in defined healthcare settings after completing a transition to practice.
Beginning January 1, 2023, authorizes a certified NP to practice independently outside of a defined healthcare setting after completing 3 years in those settings with independent practice.
It took a few tries, but nurses make the best, most relentless advocates! This time for themselves in order to better serve our under-served communities that often lack primary care providers. This will open up access to care in low income communities that are too often also communities of color.
SEIU is dedicated to looking at every issue, solving every problem through a racial justice lens. Now, more than ever that has to be our top priority.
The Nurse Alliance of SEIU California, is honored to have been a part of the passage of AB 890 and now to be working with our Nurse Practitioners, the Board of Registered Nursing and allies in developing the necessary regulatory changes that will allow our California Nurse Practitioners to finally be able to work with full practice authority!
As registered nurses, it’s our responsibility to protect our patients and our licenses by following California’s Title 22 regulations.
Right now this isn’t easy because Governor Newsom has issued an Executive Order AFL-20-26.
Pursuant to the Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency related to COVID-19, the Director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has waived the licensing requirements of Chapter 2 of Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code (HSC) and accompanying regulations with respect to any hospital or health facility identified in HSC section 1250. CDPH is temporarily waiving licensing requirements and suspending regulatory enforcement of all licensing requirements (this includes, Title 22, nurse-to-patient staffing ratios) for hospitals with a few exceptions. As a result of this temporary waiver, hospitals do not need to submit individual program flexibility requests. This waiver is valid until June 30, 2020 and may be extended based on any updated Executive Orders or guidance from CMS or the CDC.
We are still recommending that nursing staff file Patient Safety Reporting Forms (ADO) when asked to take a patient assignment that violates the ratio law or unsafe assignment and submit them to your union steward or representative. Our employers are still required to comply with adverse event and unusual occurrence reporting requirements and report any substantial staffing or supply shortages that jeopardizes patient care/safety or disrupts operations.
As nurses, we know that if it wasn’t “charted” it didn’t happen, so continue to file complaints. Don’t give our employers the excuse that nothing “bad” happened while we were out of ratio, so maybe we don’t even need them. We also know that when needed we step up and get the job done! So using your professional judgement, report any near misses or other patient safety concerns during this time of crisis. Because our patients’ lives matter no matter what.
Hospitals will now be fined for violating Title 22 our safe staffing law and forcing nurses to work out of ratio.
By signing this bill, he just made it crystal clear that Californians won’t tolerate hospitals’ dangerous corner-cutting and bare-bones staffing levels that put our patients at risk of injury or worse.
Thank you to SEIU Local 121RN for leading this campaign and to all of our nurses and nurse Locals for supporting and lobbying on this important legislation.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Terry Carter
February 7, 2019 (805) 312-0024 http://www.seiu121rn.org/
Patients suffer when hospitals break the law.
Determined, Senator Connie M. Leyva reintroduces a bill to improve hospital patient safety.
Sacramento, CA—Today, State Senator Connie M. Leyva (D–Chino) introduced SB 227, co-sponsored by SEIU Local 121RN, SEIU California State Council and United Nurses Associations of California / Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC / UHCP). Like last year’s SB 1288, this year’s bill will mandate unannounced inspections of hospitals with a special focus on adherence to California’s nurse-to-patient ratios as regulated by Title 22. This bill will also levy penalties on hospitals that continue to disregard these regulations.
“In our rapidly changing healthcare world, California’s Nurses continue to make patient safety our number one priority, both in our contracts with area hospitals and in these efforts to create a strong enforcement mechanism for existing state regulations,” said SEIU Local 121RN President Gayle Batiste, RN, CNOR at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. “Nurses are determined to ensure California no longer tolerates the flimsy enforcement that has emboldened hospitals to view Title 22 regulations as ‘recommendations’ or ‘guidelines.’ They are not recommendations. They are bare minimums.”
RNs—who referred to SB 1288 last year as the “Stop Repeat Offender Hospitals” bill—say they’re more committed than ever to push against the false narrative and aggressive lobbying that hospital administrators engaged in last year to promote the myth that our hospitals don’t experience unsafe staffing levels.
Currently…
• California leads the nation with its groundbreaking regulations protecting patients and Registered Nurses—but, the enforcement of those regulations is virtually nonexistent, rendering them meaningless in too many hospitals.
• Unlike other healthcare settings, such as long-term care facilities, hospitals face no financial penalties for violations of staffing ratios.
• A penalty only kicks in when it’s too late: when there’s a violation that caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury or death to a patient.
• If there is no serious injury or death, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) simply requests that hospitals submit a “plan of correction” (which many hospitals copy/paste from their last submitted plan).
• CDPH testified in 2013 that it does not routinely follow up on hospitals’ plans of corrections.
• Nurse-to-patient ratio laws have gone two decades without any enforcement mechanism to curb repeat offenders.
It’s time to ensure that a person doesn’t have to die before a fine is imposed.
“SB 227 will help to improve patient health and safety by ensuring hospitals in California comply with legally mandated nurse-to-patient staffing ratios,” said Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino). “The stakes for patients are very high and, in order to protect them, CDPH must fully enforce existing law. I thank SEIU California, SEIU Local 121RN and UNAC / UHCP for jointly sponsoring SB 227 and working with me to help protect patients.”
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Service Employees International Union, Local 121RN represents nearly 9,000 registered nurses and other healthcare professionals at 27 hospitals and facilities in Los Angeles and surrounding counties. This member-led organization is committed to supporting optimum working conditions that allow nurses to provide quality patient care and safety.
