WSNA in Olympia – Legislative Session Week 4

In this week’s update:

• WSNA Statement Regarding Executive Immigration Ban
• Paid Family Leave Hearing
• School Nurse Supervision Hearing
• Staffing & Rest Breaks Bills – Hearings Next Week
• Nurse Legislative Day
• Upcoming Events

WSNA’s 2017 Legislative Priorities and issue-based one-pagers can be found here.

President Trump’s executive order to ban travel and immigration to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries, including refugees fleeing violence, is antithetical to the purpose of the Washington State Nurses Association and threatens nursing’s ability to meet the health care needs of our patients.

WSNA’s Statements of Purpose include: “These purposes shall be unrestricted by considerations of age, color, creed, disability, gender, health status, life style, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation.” In other words, there is no place for discrimination based on one’s religion or nationality as we work to improve health standards, extend the availability of health services to all people, foster high standards of nursing, and promote the professional development and economic and general welfare of nurses.

Trump’s order also represents a very real threat to our ability to provide health care. In the United States, more than 2 million health care workers - including more than 200,000 nurses - are foreign-born.

WSNA’s membership represents nurses from many countries and of many faiths. Adherence to the principles of inclusion and respect is fundamental to who we are as an organization and our commitment to our patients. We oppose any executive or Congressional action that broadly targets people of a particular religion or nationality as President Trump’s executive order does.

Thank you to WSNA member Kaila Tang for providing testimony to the Senate Commerce, Labor, and Sports Committee on SB 5032. This bill would establish a family and medical leave insurance program. Kaila shared her personal story about why paid family leave is important to workers in Washington State.

You can view Kaila’s testimony here (starts at 38:21).

This week, the House Education Committee heard testimony on HB 1346, which clarifies the authority of a nurse working in a school setting. SNOW and the Nursing Commission both testified in support of this bill.

The hearing can be viewed here (starts at 45:26):

HB 1346 is scheduled to be voted out of committee late next week. The Senate companion bill will be heard next week.

We will be in Olympia next week to testify in support of the Nurse Staffing and Rest Breaks bills. Both bills are up for hearings on Tuesday, February 7th.

• HB 1714 – Concerning nursing staffing practices at hospitals.
• HB 1715 – Addressing meal and rest breaks and mandatory overtime for certain health care employees.

We are ramping up for Nurse Legislative Day next week. The Governor will be there. Will you?

Nurses are the most trusted profession – making you fantastic advocates for your patients and your profession. Please join WSNA – and approximately 600 of your colleagues – in Olympia on February 13th. You can register here.

The day will begin with an opportunity to learn about WSNA’s 2017 Legislative Priorities. Then we are excited to welcome Governor Inslee as our Keynote Speaker.
After the Governor speaks, you will have time to meet with your group to plan out your afternoon hill visits (and WSNA will have already made all the appointments for you!). Then we’ll head up to the Capitol for lunch and afternoon meetings with legislators.

We hope you will join us and make your voice heard!

Watch WSNA member Christina Stephens talk about why you should attend Nurse Legislative Day.

February 11th
TV Town Hall on Public Health
Airing at 8:30 p.m. on KOMO TV
Featuring:

• Secretary of Health John Wiesman
• Patty Hayes, RN, MN, Director of Public Health – Seattle & King County
• Dr. Ben Danielson

February 12th
TV Town Hall on Public Health – Spanish Language
Airing at 6 p.m. on Univision (KUNS TV)

February 13th
Nurse Legislative Day
Register here