February 2011 Legislative Update

Legislative Day at the Statehouse for Vermont nurses will be held on April 20, 2011. The theme of this year’s event will be “Harnessing Nurses’ Political Power” and we are honored to have Janet Haebler RN, MSN as our guest speaker. Janet holds the position of Associate Director for State Government Affairs with the American Nurses Association, the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation's 3.1 million registered nurses through its more than 50 constituent member nurses associations, including the Vermont State Nurses’ Association. She completed her undergraduate degree in nursing at Russell Sage College in New York and master’s degree in nursing with a concentration in administration at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Throughout almost forty years experience in nursing, Janet has held numerous leadership positions in a variety of settings: acute and long term care, managed care, and academia. She attributes her ability to adapt to policy development in large part to her broad-based experience. Janet spent five years with the New York State Nurses’ Association, during which time she was responsible for the Practice & Government Affairs program. She and her team celebrated such successes as title “nurse” protection and safe patient handling and movement legislation. Janet’s presentation will inform nurses of issues in the nursing profession where nurses can affect positive change through knowledge of the political and regulatory process. It will definitely be an informative and valuable presentation.

The event will begin at the Capitol Plaza Hotel conference room at 8:00 a.m. with Janet’s presentation scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Parking is free in the hotel parking area directly behind the hotel. Immediately following her presentation nurses will have the opportunity to go over to the Statehouse and sit in on committee meetings, speak with their representatives and even take an official tour of the Statehouse if they choose. At 1:00 p.m. nurses will be honored in the House Chamber by the reading of the Resolution declaring it “Nurses' Day in Vermont”.

Please plan to attend and learn how to become a more effective advocate for the nursing profession and your patients. Please do not hesitate to call me if you need directions or have any questions. My phone number is 802-876-7445 and my e-mail address is vsnalobbyist@comcast.net.

In other news, it continues to be a busy Legislative session......

The Single Payer System was the foremost issue on the agenda in January. Dr. Hsiao, a renowned Harvard economist, and his team presented an evaluation of Vermont’s current healthcare structure to the Vermont Legislature and offered three options for converting it to a single payer system. Dr. Hsiao recommended Option 3 which is a Public/Private system, as the most affordable for Vermont. You can go to http://www.vermontforsinglepayer.org/ for a copy of the draft document, Dr. Hsiao's PPT presentation and a summary of the Options. Dr. Hsiao's presentation is also available to listen to on VPR at http://www.vpr.net/news_details/89787/ The report will be open for public comment until Feb. 19, 2011. I would like to encourage everyone to at least read the summary and add to the public comment via comments@vermontact128study.com. Vermont nurses need to be involved in the process of ironing out the details of the plan! Our intimate knowledge of the needs of Vermont patients can help to mold a plan that protects both our patients and our practice.

Other issues that will possibly be addressed in this legislative session that have an impact on the nursing profession include; legalizing physician assisted suicide, taxing sweetened beverages, prevention of violence against healthcare workers, updating and expanding the Vermont Blueprint for Health, safe staffing and dissolving the APRN collaborative agreement requirement. Again, please visit the VSNA website for updates on these and other issues.

The VSNA Committee on Government Affairs is a very energetic, active group this year. We welcome anyone interested in getting involved! Please contact me at vsnalobbyist@comcast.net, (phone) 802-777-1955 or call the VSNA office at 802-651-8886 to join up. We look forward to hearing from you