Thank you, Governor Jay Inslee for recognizing May 2020 as Nurse Month."I encourage all people in our state to join me in honoring the nurses of Washington, especially recognizing the critical and live-saving role that registered nurses have filled around our state, country, and world through the current coronavirus pandemic.
On April 10, Gov. Inslee sent a memorandum clarifying how L&I should handle workers compensation claims for COVID-19. On April 13, he issued a proclamation protecting high-risk employees.
Our members have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. As we work to manage a public health crisis unlike any of us has ever seen, it is our duty to share the key lessons we are learning on the ground.
Press release
Unions representing nurses, health professionals, and health care service and maintenance workers today responded to Gov. Inslee’s emergency declaration on health and safety rules.
Today, ANA Chief Nursing Officer Debbie Hatmaker met with President Donald J. Trump to urge the administration to provide a sufficient supply of appropriate personal protective equipment for nurses and to share the need for creative staffing strategies to sustain the nursing workforce so they can continue to provide care during this pandemic.
During this outbreak and every day, our students deserve the security of having a registered professional nurse on campus. Please join us in urging Washington state lawmakers to invest $1.7 million in new funding in the School Nurse Corps during the 2020 legislative session.
This week bills that weren’t considered “necessary to implement the budget” (NTIB) were required to pass out of their fiscal committees by Monday night. Legislators worked the weekend and late on Monday to hear as many bills as possible before the cutoff.
It was a busy week of floor action at the State Capitol. Wednesday night was the House of Origin cutoff which means that all bills not necessary to implement the budget (NTIB) must be voted out of their original legislative chamber or they would no longer be viable. Bills that were voted out prior to cutoff will have hearings in the opposite chambers until the next policy cutoff on Friday, Feb. 28.
Attend your legislators’ Town Hall meetings and advocate for School Nurse Corps funding and other nursing priorities. It’s a great opportunity to hear directly from your legislators.
The Washington State Nurses Association is committed to supporting nurses and reducing barriers to licensure, especially for military spouses and partners. However, WSNA does not support the NLC.
What a week! WSNA nurses were at the Capitol this week – advocating for nursing priorities and working families. On Thursday, nurses from around the state joined WSNA’s Lobby Day and spoke with their legislators on our priority issues.
Around the state, more than 800 qualified nursing school applicants are turned away each year. The primary reason? Vacant faculty positions mean there are not enough nurse educators to teach the courses, even though programs have available student slots.
It was a busy week of hearings in Olympia, with WSNA weighing in on many bills. We continued meeting with legislators about our priority issues, including funding for the School Nurse Corps. This week we are highlighting movement on our policy priority related to the need for a more uniform, but also community-based, response system for sexual assaults and making sure that the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners we represent are included in conversations that affect their work.
2020 Legislative Session Week 1 update The 2020 legislative session kicked off on Monday. It’s the second year of the biennium which means that it is a “short” 60-day session. New House Speaker Laurie Jinkins was sworn in on Monday – she is the first woman and first out lesbian Speaker of House. She is a strong advocate for access to health care, public health, as well as nursing and patient safety issues. Former Speaker Frank Chopp remains a member of the House of Representatives and is now sitting on several committees including House Health Care.
Some say you must earn accolades for your accomplishments, be highly educated or hold a formal title. I disagree with all the above being a requirement to call yourself a leader. I say it matters more what you do.ws
It was June 1944, the country was at war, and Marge Batey was graduating from St. Patrick’s Academy in Sidney, Nebraska. The boys from her high school class were heading into the military, off to the battlefields of World War II. Batey was heading to the Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Spokane.
By Ruth Schubert, APR, Director of Marketing and Communications
A friendly reminder from the WSNA-PAC Board that today, Tuesday, November 5, is Election Day – no postage is required to mail your ballot!
Attend an event in our Fall Leadership Series. Learn what you can do as a nurse to ensure successful implementation of new laws aimed at preventing workplace violence and protecting overtime and breaks for healthcare professionals.
A friendly reminder from the WSNA-PAC Board that Washington state’s Primary Election is Tuesday, August 6 – no postage is required to mail your ballot! The WSNA-PAC has endorsed candidates in two special election legislative races.
Press release
The state Department of Labor and Industries on April 11 cited and fined St. Joseph Medical Center Tacoma for safety violations related to a series of attacks on nurses at the hospital. L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health launched an investigation at the request of WSNA after a patient in the psychiatric unit assaulted numerous nurses in October 2018.
As nurses around the country watch to see if Washington’s legislature will pass urgently needed breaks and overtime protections, we are reminded of the power nurses have owning our profession.
In perhaps one of the most demeaning statements on the nursing profession since Joy Behar’s 2015 “doctor’s stethoscope” comments on The View, Washington State Senator Maureen Walsh proclaimed on the Senate floor that Critical Access Hospital nurses should be exempt from protections in mandatory overtime because they sit around and play cards most of the day.
Margarita López Prentice, former state legislator, longtime WSNA member and inductee in the Washington State Nurses Hall of Fame, passed away quietly in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Bryn Mawr-Skyway, Washington on April 2, 2019. She was 88 years old.
On Tuesday, the Senate released its budget.
