 | The Voice of Nursing Leadership in Pennsylvania |
Ponl legislation and advocacy
Visiting Your legislator? Be prepared with the PONL Handout for Legislative Visits 2025 House/Senate Schedule The PA House and Senate have announced their 2025 session schedules. The House has posted session days for the entire 2025 calendar year, while the Senate has only announced their “Spring” calendar. Legislators will be sworn in on Tuesday, January 7th and the Governor’s Budget Address will be Tuesday, February 4th. House January 7, 27, 28, 29 February 3, 4, 5 March 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 April 7, 8, 9, 22, 23, 24 May 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14 June 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30 September 22 (NV), 23 (NV), 24 (NV), 29, 30 October 1, 6, 7, 8, 27, 28, 29 November 17, 18, 19 December 8 (NV), 9 (NV), 10 (NV), 15, 16, 17
Senate January 7, 27, 28, 29 February 3, 4, 5 March 24, 25, 26, 31 April 1, 2 May 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 June 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 Recent Activity August 26, 2024 For the History of the Company Journey, please review here! Read the notes submitted by Mary O'Connor here and see the update for the Nurse Licensure Compact below: July 18, 2024 Governor Shapiro signed HB 2200 “FBI-Approved Language to Implement Licensure Compacts” into law on July 17, 2024. It is now Act No. 79 of 2024, and it will take effect in 180 days. This is great news and Pennsylvania’s nearly 300,000 licensed Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses are one step closer to being able to obtain a multi-state license. Pennsylvania joined the Nurse License Compact on July 1, 2021, when Gov. Wolf signed the Nurse Licensure Compact (Act 68) into law. The FBI did not believe Act 68 and other professions’ interstate compact legislation language was sufficient for background checks and provided lawmakers with draft language to ensure national criminal background checks. Therefore, Senator Lisa Boscola and Rep Frank Burns worked with the Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI to include compromise language into HB2200 and its companion bill SB1165 that amends Title 63 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. Act No. 79 of 2024 provides that applicants for initial licenses, certificates, or interstate compact licenses, in a healthcare field must submit fingerprints for a background check to the PA State Police, who will then send the fingerprints to the FBI for identity verification and a national criminal history check. Current Pennsylvania license holders do not need to submit fingerprints for a criminal history check for renewal of their PA license. How will this affect nurses now that Act No. 79 of 2024 is signed into law? To find out, I attended the PA State Board of Nursing (PA-SBN) meeting on July 12, 2024, and the following was reported:
Prior SBN Board meeting minutes noted:
Of note, since Sept. 5, 2023, Pennsylvania partially implemented the NLC, allowing RNs and LPNs who hold multi-state licenses from other states through the NLC to provide in-person and telehealth services to PA patients. These nurses from other states, who also hold a Pennsylvania single-state license, may stop renewing it. Now that Act No. 79 of 2024 is enacted, and once all of the other steps completed, full implementation of the NLC will allow Pennsylvania RNs and LPNs with multi-state licenses to work in any of the 42 Nurse Compact States. Visit nursecompact.com for more information. |
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As you now know, the House passed the Nurse Ratio Bill, by a vote of 119-84. Now the bill will go to the Senate and discussions could potentially begin in September. Some states that had similar deiscussions regarding ratios came away without a Ratio Bill, but rather an agreement that staffing committees would be established in their hospitals. Read the PONL Legislative Visit talking points here. We need some information from YOU! Using this link, please tell us if your hospital has a staffing committee or not - it will take you less than two minutes and will help us know how to best serve you. We welcome any additional detail you can provide us, too! During the summer I urge all of us to contact our State Senators since they could be more available at their home offices. If you do not know who your legislators are, please use this handy link to find out: Find Your Legislators. Thank you for your advocacy on this very critical issue. Please make use of the talking points supporting our stance that can be found on the Legislative page of the PONL website. If you have additional questions, please contact Rosa Hickey by email or phone at 717-487-0911. Rosa Hickey, MSN, RN, NEA-BC | PONL Legislative Committee Chair |
House HEALTH Committee Vote meeting June 6, 2023 HB106 Patient Safety Act of 2023, Sponsored by Mehaffie, Tomlinson, and Kosierowski Regular Session 2023-2024 House Bill 0106 P.N. 1462 (state.pa.us) YouTube video of live-streamed House HEALTH Committee Meeting, 6/6/2023. |
Bills in the Pennsylvania Legislature during the 118th Legislative Session |
1. Nurse Staffing Practices & RatiosPONL Opposes HB 106 “The Patient Safety Act” (Mehaffie, Tomlinson & Kosierowski) & SB 247 (Senator Collett) PONL is strongly committed to nurse staffing practices that support the provision of safe patient care. PONL endorses the autonomy of each healthcare organization to establish appropriate strategies to deliver high levels of patient care by providing safe, effective, and collaborative staffing practices. PONL is adamantly opposed to any legislation that would mandate nurse-to-patient ratios for all heath care organizations. Read PONL's Position Statement on Nurse Staffing Practices & Ratios (updated April 2023). | 2. TelemedicinePONL Supports
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3. Full Practice Authority for Nurse PractitionersPONL Supports
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Workplace Violence Bills Introduced to U.S. Congress
PONL Supports
- H.R.2584 Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act. Dean [D-PA-4] | Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, April 13, 2023
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S.2768 Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act. Manchin [D-WV] & Marco [R-FL] | Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, Sept. 12, 2023
- S.1176 Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act Baldwin [D-WI] | Referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, April 18, 2023
- H.R. 2663 Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act Courtney [D-CT-2] | Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and the Committees on Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means, April 18, 2023
(*RATIONALE for non-support: The OSHA Mandate duplicates The Joint Commission’s Workplace Violence Prevention standard effective January 2022. These two Workplace Violence bills duplicate that which is already required. Therefore, PONL Supports the SAVE Acts.)
PONL Monitoring
PONL Legislative Committee Members |
Rosa Hickey, Chair
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