Chris Coil / chris.coil@
Harrisburg, PA – Frontline caregivers in Pennsylvania have long faced a pair of critical challenges in our hospitals – unsafe staffing and workplace violence. For decades, hospitals have understaffed nurses as a strategy to enhance profits, and nurses and other healthcare workers have long experienced workplace violence at rates exponentially higher than workers in other sectors. However, the pandemic has greatly exacerbated both challenges and precipitated the hemorrhaging of healthcare workers from hospitals across the nation.We are now in a full-blown crisis, one that affects the quality of bedside care for all Pennsylvanians and the health and safety of frontline healthcare workers across the Commonwealth.
Today, during Nurses Week 2024, nurses across PA gathered at the Capitol to speak out about these critical challenges and: 1) urge PA Senators to act on the Patient Safety Act (HB106) – a bill that seeks to enact minimum safe staffing standards in every hospital in the commonwealth for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians – and 2) urge members of the House Labor & Industry Committee to pass HB2247, a bill that would establish violence prevention committees mandated to conduct risk assessments and develop robust violence prevention programs in every health facility in Pennsylvania.
The Patient Safety Act – HB106 – passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support last June. At the time, state Rep. Tom Mehaffie, the bill’s Prime Sponsor, said: “Today, we plugged the leaks in the bucket and listened to what our bedside nurses tell us they need to care for us.”
Unfortunately, that proverbial bucket is still leaking profusely, and the bill has yet to receive any legislative action in the Senate. So today, every major nursing organization in the commonwealth, representing more than 100,000 RNs – union and nonunion – urged PA Senators to act on the bill as the answer – the only answer – to the current nurse staffing crisis that is driving down the number of RNs willing to work at the bedside and depressing the quality of patient care across Pennsylvania.
“We have to stop putting nurses and patients in these situations,” said Jaime Balsamo, R.N., a 16-year veteran at UPMC Altoona. “We need to give nurses the support and resources we need to do our jobs to the best of our abilities to provide the care our patients deserve. That’s why we need the Patient Safety Act, and real nurse- to-patient staffing ratios, and it’s why SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania together with other unions and allies has collected over 22,000 signatures in support of these ratios. We know giving patients more time and attention would lead to better outcomes and help retain nurses in our hospitals.”
The nurses presented PA Senators and Gov. Shapiro with the signatures of 22,000 Pennsylvanians, most of them bedside nurses, urging our elected representatives to prioritize patient safety in the commonwealth and act on the Patient Safety Act for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians.
“We need to ensure that here in Pennsylvania, we spend our healthcare resources on what matters most, and that’s patient care,” said Balsamo. “During Nurses Week, we need more than talk. We need action to ensure safe staffing in our hospitals.”
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SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania is the state’s largest and fastest-growing union of nurses and healthcare workers, uniting tens of thousands of professional and technical employees, direct care workers, and service employees in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home- and community-based services, and state facilities across the Commonwealth. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania members are committed to improving the lives of healthcare workers and ensuring quality care and healthy communities for all Pennsylvanians.
seiuhcpa.org — www.facebook.com/seiuhcpa — twitter.com/seiuhcpa