We Did It!

[-jt]

NY Nurses succeeded in obtaining a state law that will give them whistleblower protection. Their bill was signed into law by the Gov yesterday:

(For Immediate Release:)

New York Nurses Hail Signing of Healthcare Whistleblower Protection Bill

New York, NY, 4/2/02; 1200 - The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) today applauded the signing of legislation to expand legal protections for healthcare "whistleblowers."

At a signing ceremony in New York City, NYSNA President Robert Piemonte, RN, thanked Gov. George Pataki and state legislators for taking action on this important issue.

"Nurses who fight to protect their patients should not have to fight to protect their jobs," he said. "Nurses now have added assurance that the law will be behind them when they report unsafe staffing levels, medical errors, and other situations that are detrimental to patient care."

"Whistleblower protection is the foundation for NYSNA's continuing efforts to ensure patient safety and better working conditions for nurses," said Piemonte. "We are working to end employer abuse of mandatory overtime and to establish safe staffing levels in healthcare facilities across the state. But any new patient safety laws can work only if nurses' jobs are protected when they report violations."

Key features of the bill:

Healthcare employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who:

* Disclose or threaten to disclose to supervisors or public agencies activities that they reasonably believe constitute improper quality of patient care.

* Object to, or refuse to participate in such activities.

Improper quality of patient care' is defined as any practice, procedure, action or failure to act which violates any law, rule, regulation, or declaratory ruling that may present a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety or a significant threat to the health of a specific patient.

An employee must first report the problem to a supervisor, unless he or she reasonably believes there is an imminent threat to patients and that reporting to a supervisor would not result in corrective action.

If employees experience retaliation for these activities, they may seek relief in civil court.

If the employer is found guilty, in addition to providing restitution to the employee, the court may assess a fine, which will be placed in a special state fund dedicated to improving the quality of patient care. The fine should be a deterrent for employers who contemplate retaliatory actions against employees.

The employee cannot be required to pay the employer's attorney and court costs, even if the employee's suit is unsuccessful.

This legislation represents several important changes in traditional whistleblower laws. The law formerly required knowledge of actual harm to the public at large. For healthcare workers, this is now expanded to include the potential for harm or harm to an individual patient.

Whistleblower protection laws often do not allow wronged employees to go to court unless they can prove their employers were engaged in illegal activities. Protection is now provided for healthcare employees who have reasonable belief that laws or regulations have been violated.

NYSNA is the professional association for registered nurses in New York and has more than 33,000 members statewide. NYSNA and NYSNA nurses wrote this bill and then worked with assembly members and state senators to see it into law.

http://www.NYSNA.org

Contact: Nancy Webber, NYSNA, 518.782.9400, ext. 223

[email protected]

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

KUDOS to you and NYSNA.....now on to all the other states without protection...including PA, which only has STATE WORKERS protection.

[Medsurg]

I wish we had this protection in wyoming. There are times were its one nurse to 16 patients on Med/Surg floor during the day and supervisors say its safe.

[-jt]

Most state nurses associations are working on obtaining a whistleblowers law since that is one of the pieces in the ANA Safe Staffing initiative: Ban mandatory ot, set safe staffing guidelines, obtain whistleblower protections to name just a few. So check with your state nurses association to see if it is in the works & what you can do to help make it happen. If there is a bill in the process, it would help if nurses in your state blitzed your elected officials with email, letters & phone calls about why they need to support it. Also, participating in your state associations Nurse Legislative Day to meet these officials one-on-one to educate them & get their support works wonders. Your supervisor may not listen to nurses but these guys usually do.

Wyoming Nurses Association

Beverly McDermott, MS, RN, Executive Director

Majestic Building, Room 305

1603 Capitol Avenue

Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001

[phone]

Fax [phone]

E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]

*Office Hours: Tuesday/Friday 9:00am - 1:00pm

Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 8:00am - 1:00pm Mountain Time

Ask about their legislative agenda & whistleblower protections

[nightingale, RN]

jt ... thank you for saying WE.... it is nice being a part of the solution if only by osmosis....

I wrote another note to the WNA to get involved as a volounteer.. oh joy....

B.