According to a March 5 press release, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Representatives Doris Matsui (D-CA-07) and Jen Kiggans (R-VA-02) announced the introduction of the Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act. This bicameral, bipartisan bill would provide nurses with stronger federal workplace safeguards.
The press release states, “To date, 18 states have passed legislation or issued regulations restricting mandatory overtime for nurses. The Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act would provide strong protections at the federal level for all of America’s 5.2 million registered nurses – the single largest group of health care professionals in the nation, as well as nearly 1 million licensed practice nurses. The Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act would limit mandatory overtime for nurses by prohibiting health care facilities from requiring nurses to work with certain exceptions, adopt whistleblower and nondiscrimination protections to protect nurses against retaliation, and impose civil penalties for each known violation.”
In the Senate, the Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and John Fetterman (D-PA), according to the release.
Merkley’s website has the full press release.
