New Jersey Staffing Disclosure Law

Nurses Activism

Published

On Monday, January 24, 2005, NJ Acting Governore Cody signed the Staffing Disclosure Bill. This bill requires posting each shift of the patient census, # of RNs actually doing patient care, as well as the # of specific ancillary personel. This information must be made available to the public and must be collected and turned into the Department of Health (DOH).

Nurses from HPAE worked hard on this - as a first step toward actually obtaining good, mandated ratios. The full bill can be viewed at http://www.hpae.org. Click on "Legislative Update", then click on the staffing disclosure bill.

The bill now goes to the DOH to work on rules and regulations for implementation scheduled to start in 6 months.

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Will be interesting to see if this new law is delayed or not abided by. What was the penalty for NOT posting or making available the numbers????

Can they include ALL management in the mix???

We already have HN in staffing but not Directors for example. Can they be included??

Can the numbers only reflect the average???

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Will be interesting to see if this new law is delayed or not abided by. What was the penalty for NOT posting or making available the numbers????

Can they include ALL management in the mix???

Staff nurses from HPAE(union) worked on developing the bill, testifying, and getting it passed. So the intention is for management nurses not to be included in the numbers at all.The wording of the bill is that it pertains to nurses providing direct patient care.

The penalty is not included in the actual bill. Nurses will have to be involved in the rules and regulations committee of the Department of Health during the next few months as they make the formal regulations for implementation. in order to make sure the penalty is appropriate.

You can view the entire bill at [I]www.hpae.org[/i]. Click on "legislative update" and then on "staffing disclosure bill".

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how does this information help? Who determines what is the appropriate number of nurses/other staff? Is patient acuity a factor? How does this assure more nurses will be working?

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how does this information help? Who determines what is the appropriate number of nurses/other staff? Is patient acuity a factor? How does this assure more nurses will be working?

We have been successful in getting a bill INTRODUCED that has good minimum staffing levels and accounts for acuity -- which both would assure more nurses working. However, it will take lots of hard work in order to actually get the bill PASSED. In the meantime, the staffing disclosure law that has passed (after much hard work) will help by:

1. making the public and health care employees aware of various ratios, so they can better choose a hospital

2. providing evidence that we can use in our fight to get staffing ratios passed.

To see the entire staffing bill that has been introduced (including specified ratios) into the New Jersey State legislature, go to http://www.hpae.org, click on "legislative upfdate", then click on "Staffing bill".

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I'm rooting for you!

Is there anything out of state nurses can do?

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