On March 16, Health Care Workers Council members participated in a Lobby Day for New Jersey Safe Staffing Bill S1182, which supports safe nurse-to-patient ratios. Over 300 members of unions belonging to the Safe Staffing Coalition were on hand to support this bill in Trenton, NJ.
The Health Care Workers Council of the United Steelworkers recognizes the vital role that all healthcare workers play in delivering quality patient care. The Bill introduced in New Jersey, unlike many other safe staffing bills, acknowledges that safe staffing includes a full complement of health care workers in addition to set registered nurse to patient ratios:
“The establishment of staffing standards for registered professional nurses … should not be construed as justifying understaffing with respect to other critical health care workers; safe staffing practices recognize the importance of all health care workers in providing quality patient care because the availability of these other health care workers enables registered professional nurses to focus on the nursing care functions that only these nurses, by law, are permitted to perform…”
Further, this Bill would require facilities to consider the availability of other health care personnel when developing their mandatory acuity and staffing system.
The USW Health Care Workers Council recognizes this language as a necessary, incremental step in the right direction in order to pursue comprehensive safe staffing legislation, which will protect our profession, our jobs, and our patients. As a Union we continue to advocate for the fundamental belief that all health care workers play a critical role in delivering quality patient care and look forward to working with all health care members as we continue the important work of political advocacy on the state and federal level.
From left-right: Rey Calivo, Danielle Coppolla, Marylyn Morgan, Sandra McNelis
From left to right: Fran Dag Dag, Sandra McNelis, Danielle Coppolla, Rep Pinkin (NJ), Debbie Stuart, Rey Calivo, Jessica Stuart