Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nurses back bill to protect their jobs

Patient safety key in AB183, nurses say

University of Nevada, Reno nursing students listen Monday in the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee meeting, where lawmakers are considering a bill that would protect nurses from retaliation from employers if they balk at taking what they consider to be unsafe assignments. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY -- Nurses asked Nevada lawmakers on Monday to make it illegal for employers to fire them for refusing an assignment because they feel it's dangerous.

Under Nevada law, nurses are required to reject an assignment if they feel they do not have "the knowledge, skills or ability" to complete it safely. However, the law does not protect their jobs if they reject an assignment.

"This is not about a nurse saying, `I don't want to,' " said Lisa Black of the Nevada Nurses Association. "It's about a nurse saying, `My job is to advocate for my patients and I believe my patient's safety is in jeopardy.' "

Nevada has fewer nurses per 100,000 people than any other state, said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who introduced the bill. Those nurses are often asked to care for more patients than is safe, Black said.

Black read testimony from a pediatric nurse in Las Vegas, who asked that her name not be used because she feared a reprimand from her current employer. The nurse said she was caring for seven patients on one shift, including a dying 5-year-old heart transplant recipient, a 2-month-old just off a respirator, an 18-month-old experiencing frequent seizures, and four others in critical care. Because she refused to admit an eighth patient from the emergency room, she was fired from her previous job, she said.

"I feared for the safety of my patients. I was told that no other nurse was available and I should do my best," she wrote.

More than 100 nurses and nursing students showed up at the Legislature to support Assembly Bill 183, which would bar retaliation or discrimination against nurses who refuse an assignment "in good faith." Employers found guilty of retaliation would be required to compensate the nurse for lost hours and pay five times the amount of the nurse's salary.

Jim Wadhams, a lobbyist for the Nevada Hospital Association, told the panel that his group thinks the bill needs work.

Wadhams said he was concerned that the determination of whether a situation jeopardizes a patient's safety was left to the nurse's "belief." Wadhams said it amounted to a "drift away from a fact-based system to a belief-based system."

Debra Scott, executive director of the state Board of Nursing, said the board applies a three-prong test when investigating charges of patient abandonment and would apply a similar test in investigating these cases.

"We don't look at belief, we look at the what the law says and we look at evidence," she said.