NNA legislative committee.(Nevada State Legislative Issues)(Nevada Nurses Association)

This committee has been active between Nevada State legislative sessions monitoring NV State Interim Health Care Committees' monthly meetings. The NNA legislative committee meets via teleconference to discuss legislative and proposed legislation for the 2009 session. The NNA lobbyist, Neena Laxalt, has been an invaluable source of information and support in this endeavor. At this writing there are nearly 600 Bill Draft Requests (BDR) with a probable 3000+ expected. The committee reviews them as they are added to the list and selects those that may affect nursing practice. BDRs are a simple one sentence draft with no information as to what the true content of the proposed bill will be; therefore the committee relies on our lobbyist to keep us informed and knowledgeable on the content and what action may be required from the NNA Legislative committee.

NNA has also initiated an important survey to obtain data about nurses' experiences with whistleblower issues, the results of which may support legislative change to enhance the whistleblower statutes.

NNA has benefited from Nancy Menzel's extensive background on the safe patient handling issue and the composition of drafts of a proposed safe patient handling bill for consideration at the next legislative session. The final language of this bill will result from discussion with SEIU.

The legislative priorities that NNA has identified are:

* Safe Patient Handling.

* Safe Staffing

* Nursing Practice--specifically the Medication Aide issue

* Increasing Whistle-blower Protection The Legislative Committee is also aware that other concerns may arise during the legislative process and that NNA may have to respond as the process goes forward. Some BDRs that we have currently identified as affecting nurses are listed below:

We welcome NNA members with interest in the participating in the legislative process to contact the chairs: Martha Drohobyczer: marthadrohobyczer@yahoo.com or Betty Razor: etbetty@sbcglobal.net

Additional information on Nevada's legislature may be found at http://www.leg.state.nv.us/

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates