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General
Legislative Updates
Save the Date!
APRIL 2,2007 is
Nurses' Day at
the State House
There are several bills left from last session:
- H. 11 An Act Relating to the Commissioner of Health
- H. 421 An Act Relating to Safe Patient Handling
- S. 166 An Act Relating to Prohibiting Mandatory Overtime
H. 531 An Act Relating to Ensuring Success in Health Care Reform
created a study committee consisting of APRNs and physicians to examine
barriers to access to APRN care. The report is due in January '08.
The Health Care Reform Commission reported the recommendations of
their workgroups. Some of these related to nursing are:
- Prevent chronic illness by reducing obesity.
- Use health IT, e.g., Electronic Medical Record (EMR), and
Electronic Prescribing (e-Rx).
- Expand loan repayment program from $1.4 to $2.0 million/year.
- Support for nursing education/faculty salaries.
- Funding for patient simulators.
H. 44/S. 63 An Act Relating to Patient Choice and Control at End of
Life (aka Physician Assisted Suicide) was defeated, but many
organizations who supported, opposed, or were neutral on this bill
wanted to follow up. The groups met in December and here are some
of the recommendations:
- Enforce existing legislation, i.e., nursing home residents be
informed they can utilize hospice services.
- Seek pediatric expansion of hospice services by eliminating the
requirement for 6 month life expectancy.
- Better dissemination of information about hospice and palliative
care, advance directives, and include these statistics in the
Hospital Community Reports.
- Seek state funding for hospice.
- Ensure basic and continuing education for nurses and physicians
for pain management. It is clear there will be bills related
to End of Life Care introduced early in the new session that begins
January 8, 2008.
You can e-mail your ideas to
VSNA. Thanks for the
opportunity to be the lobbyist for VSNA, I am always proud
to be a nurse who advocates for nursing and health care for
Vermonters.
Nurses are highly regarded and I am always proud to say I
represent
VSNA! |
Legislative Links
VT State
Legislature
VAHHS
Legislative Report
Navigating the Legislative Process
VSNA
Lobbying Guide
Dates To Remember:
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