Across the country health care professionals are using
their collective voice to lobby for better health care.

 Substantial regulatory gains have been made in a number of states, mandating patient acuity as a determinant for safe staffing, limiting unsafe use of unlicensed personnel, setting minimum nurse to patient ratios, providing safer needlestick standards, establishing whistleblower protections and requiring minimum stays for new mothers and infants.  As health care professionals, we have a responsibility not only to provide quality care, but also to speak out against practices that jeopardize our patients and our professions.

SB 1374 is an act addressing the NURSING & HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE SHORTAGE.  CHCA testified last week on this bill. It would be helpful to get it passed. It sets up a Trust Fund to provide for grants and scholarships for nursing education in Connecticut's Universities and the Bridgeport Hospital School of Nursing. Included is a "pass through" provision for home care agencies including wages and benefits, specifically, tuition subsidies expanded for RN and LPN education.
HOWEVER, Section 12 of this bill provides for a SINGLE TASK WORKER which would be detrimental to quality of care, and it de-skills, or "dumbs down", the health care workforce.

Please call the members of the Select Committe on Workforce Development.
Ask them to support this bill only with the deletion of Section 12. If you have any questions/comments/ concerns, please call the CHCA office at (203) 265-2297.

 Select Committee on Workforce Development

Joan Hartley(D-Waterbury), Lewis Wallace(D-Danbury), Mary Ann Handley(D-Manchester), Evelyn Mantilla(D-Hartford), Stephen Somma(R-Waterbury), Kenneth Bernhard(R-Westport), David Blackwell(R-Manchester), Elizabeth Boukus(D-Hartford), Michael Fedele(R-Stamford), Mary Fritz(D-Yalesville), Sonya Googins(R-Glastonbury), Howard Scipio(D-New Haven), Andrea Stillman(D-Waterbury), Patricia Wislitz(D-Guilford). For further information about state senators/representatives, visit www.cga.state.ct.us

• Public Disclosure Information – We support legislation that requires public disclosure of patient care standards, staffing levels and quality indicators, so that patients can make educated decisions when choosing a health care facility.

• Needlestick Prevention & Safety – We support legislation that mandates the use of safe, “hollow-bore” needleless or needle devices in nursing homes and hospitals.  These needles protect health care workers from serious injury and death from blood borne pathogens.

• Whistleblower Protections – We support legislation that mandates protection for health care workers who report conditions that are unsafe for patients as well employees.

• Worker Fatigue Protections – We support legislation that limits mandatory overtime.  Fatigued employees are likely to make more patient care errors and they put their own personal safety at risk.  Shift-worker fatigue costs the U.S. economy $77 billion a year, and most fatigue-induced accidents or injuries at work result in workers’ compensation claims.

• Safe Staffing – We support legislation that ensures that staffing levels are based on patient acuity not on the bottom line. 

Do you want to get involved ?? Contact Us Here

State Senator/Representative Contact Information in Alphabetical Directories
Senate – www.cga.sate.ct.us/olm/guide/senalfa.htm
House – www.cga.sate.ct.us/olm/guide/house.htm