3.8.17
Suggested lead:
Truck drivers have mandatory rest periods for safety reasons.
If a state lawmaker from Spokane gets his way, so will nurses. Dan
Frizzell has more.
Wrap (:70 total): Twelve-hour shifts for
hospital nurses are common; they’re popular with hospitals and with most nurses
as well. But the downside is the
possibility – some would say probability – that most of those 12 hours will find
nurses on their feet, with few if any chances to catch their breath, enjoy a
regular mealtime, and recharge their batteries.
It’s a dangerous situation for patients and nurses alike, and it will
change if a bill now being worked in Olympia becomes law.
The gist of the bill is that, with some reasonable exceptions for
emergency situations, hospitals would be required to provide predictable rest
periods and meal breaks for nurses and a variety of other staffers – medical
caregivers who currently have no idea when, or if, they’re going to have a
break. Representative Marcus Riccelli, a Democrat from Spokane, sponsored the
bill.
RICCELLI: This is about
worker fairness, but it’s also about ensuring patients have safety. We need to
know that nurses are getting the breaks they need, the rest.
So this is something that we need to do to make sure that we’re safe,
that we’re treating our workers fairly, and that when we show up, we’re going to
get the health care that we all want. [:16]
Now that Riccelli’s bill has cleared the House, it’ll be
taken up in the Senate, which has until April 23 to OK it and send it to the
governor for his signature. In
Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.