Legislative priorities

HB 2155 • SB 5904

As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology grows rapidly in healthcare, so does concern about how it will impact patient care and the workforce. While AI can be a useful clinical support tool, we must make sure it never takes the place of an actual human in providing care. As patients increasingly interact with AI tools such as chatbots, transparency is essential to ensure they know who or what is giving health care guidance. Without legal protections, there is growing concern that AI systems are being presented to patients as providing “nursing” care. Safeguarding the title “nurse” in law will help affirm the distinction between licensed, human professionals and technology. This bill amends the Nurse Practice Act to ensure that those who use the term nurse are indeed human.

HB 2360 • SB 5951

Reliable access to albuterol for children experiencing difficulty with breathing at school is a problem that school nurses continue to face. Students frequently forget or lose their inhalers, and many children and families lack preventive healthcare access when they need it. Approximately 10% of all school-aged children in the country are impacted by asthma, with a higher prevalence among lower-income students and students of color. Further, undiagnosed students may also experience their first asthmatic attack while at school. This bill would establish a statewide standing order through the Department of Health (DOH) for albuterol in K-12 schools so that schools may keep an inhaler on hand for those types of scenarios. Every student should have access to life saving medications. This bill is being championed by the School Nurse Organization of Washington (SNOW).

With an estimated $6 billion budget deficit over the next four years in Washington state, we cannot simply cut our way out of this deficit. Working class and traditionally under-resourced Washingtonians will be hardest hit by federal cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. Piling state cuts onto these families will make it even harder for them to make ends meet. We must protect access to healthcare and coverage, as well as jobs. WSNA opposes cuts that will impact our patients and our nurses. As a state, this problem will persist if we do not create a more balanced tax system.

Due to leadership shakeups at the federal level last year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has lost quorum, the minimum number of members needed to make binding decisions. This has effectively crippled many of the NLRB’s normal functions and is holding back unions’ ability to properly fight for their members’ rights. This bill, if passed, would allow a state-based structure to secure basic collective bargaining rights for private sector workers if federal courts undermine bargaining rights, effectively “triggering” this state-based structure to step in place.

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