Advocacy News - Make Your Voice Heard Now
Strengthening the nursing workforce is AMSN’s top legislative priority & your voice is needed!
With AMSN support, a bill intended to protect health care workplace safety passed the US House of Representatives on April 16 by a vote of 254-166.
The “Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Services Workers Act” (HR 1195) backed by members of the Nursing Community Coalition would require the Secretary of Labor to issue an interim final federal workplace violence prevention standard that would require covered health care and social service employers to establish workplace violence prevention standard policies in their own workplaces that include requirements to investigate violent incidents, and training and education on the requirements, and recordkeeping and logs.
The next step for the bill is the U.S. Senate.
Improving maternal health where the most improvement is needed is the goal of a letter AMSN signed with the Nursing Community Coalition April 29 in favor of the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act (HR 959 / S 346) pending in Congress. “The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. was reported as 17.4 deaths per 100,000 live births, a number more than double other developed countries,” the letter stated. “Sadly, our black mothers are disproportionately impacted as their maternal mortality rates are 2.5 to 3.1 times higher that of their white counterparts.”
The bill supports perinatal workforce development, investment in social determinants of health, and assistance for pregnant and postpartum Veterans.