Legislative session week 3

In this week’s update:

• Week three recap
• Advocacy Camp
• Rest Break Bill update – email your legislators
• WSNA Lobby Day

For more on WSNA’s 2019 Legislative Priorities click here.

On Monday, nursing strength was on full display as more than 400 nurses and nursing students from around the state spent the day engaging in discussions, listening to speakers and learning from nurse advocates about the power of building relationships with your legislators!

On Thursday, the Senate Labor Committee voted our Rest Breaks bill, SB 5190, out of committee. It now heads to the Senate Ways and Means Committee. WSNA also gave testimony to the House Education Committee about the importance of funding school nurses and public health. WSNA members and staff also joined the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) Legislative Conference in Olympia.

We were excited to welcome more than 400 nurses and nursing students this year to Olympia for our revamped Advocacy Camp this week! The morning was packed with a variety of information and presentations: an informative Legislative 101 presentation, a thoughtful keynote address from Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib, a humorous presentation from Scott Palmer and a discussion with a panel of nurse advocates.

We look forward to building on this new format in 2020!

Now that our Rest Breaks bills (SB 5190 / HB 1155) have made it out of both the Senate and House Labor Committees, these bills move on to the fiscal committees in each chamber.

Click here to watch the house labor committee vote our Rest Break Bill out of the Labor Committee.

In an effort to derail the success of this legislation, industry has introduced an “alternative” that would undermine worker and patient safety. SB 5344 adds language about rest breaks into an existing law, but this language simply maintains the status quo. Other language in this bill rolls back worker protections that exist under current law and sets a max working week for nurses at 60 hours. Tell legislators to protect patient safety and oppose SB 5344 and nurses working to exhaustion while they care for us and to support HB 1155 and SB 5190.

The goal of WSNA’s Lobby Day is to advance our legislative priorities that support nurses and patient safety. This event will include a morning briefing session to help participants get up-to-speed on key issues before afternoon meetings with legislators in their offices at the Capitol.

We are happy to offer 2.75 CNE contact hours this year! Visit the wsna.org for more information and Lobby Day registration.