Call to Action: Senate Bill 823

Posted about 5 years ago by Bill Schueler

This announcement has 2 attachments:

OR Health Care Worker Protection Act- SB 823 (82 KB)

Hello Emergency Nursing Colleagues,

Oregon Senate Bill 823: Oregon Health Care Workers Protection Act will have a public hearing on Wednesday, 3/20/2019 at the Oregon Capitol, room HR A at 1 pm. If you can attend to support this bill, it will show the Senate Committee on Healthcare that we take violence prevention in healthcare very seriously. If you are not able to attend, you can watch the public hearing via OLIS (Oregon Legislative Information System). Our Oregon Legislature works very fast and many times there is not significant advanced notice.

Senate Bill 823 aims to enhance our current laws on healthcare worker safety:

Allow frontline caregivers to review the hospital's Assault Log and evaluate employer's progress towards identifying vulnerabilities and violence prevention.
Reinforce that it is unlawful practice to retaliate against an employee for making good-faith reports of assaults. This can hopefully counter the persistent trend of underreporting in our hospitals.
Requires a comprehensive security assessment by the year 2021, using a state or nationally recognized assessment methodology
Hospitals would review and assess their workplace violence prevention and protection plan at least every two years and would include front-line caregiver feedback.

Our Oregon ENA president, Krista Espenship will be in attendence and hopefully will be giving verbal testimony.

Please make your voice heard and consider emailing the members of the Senate Committee on Healthcare:

Oregon ENA has been working with the Oregon Nurses Association for the past year on violence prevention and we are proud to support this bill, along with many other professional organizations.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out govaffairs@oregon-ena.org

Bill Schueler, MSN, RN, CEN, CPPS, WVTS

Oregon ENA Government Affairs Chair