NURSES CHEER TARTAGLIONE PROPOSAL

            HARRISBURG, May 7, 2003 -- Backed by hundreds of cheering nurses, state Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today urged her colleagues to get behind a new bipartisan effort to make hospitals safer by easing the stress on nurses.

            "I know from personal experience that healthcare professionals put their heart and soul into caring for their patients," she told the crowd in the Capitol Rotunda. "We must create a work environment that allows them to treat their patients with the care they deserve."

             Tartaglione is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 722, which would ban mandatory overtime, a practice that is exacerbating the current nursing shortage by forcing tired nurses out of the profession.

             "With hospitals and other health care providers cutting costs, facilities are understaffed, positions are going unfilled and staffs are overworked," she said. "This creates a dangerous situation - one ripe for medical errors."

             SB 722 is Tartaglione's third attempt to make her colleagues understand the connection between patient safety and nurse fatigue. This time, however, the bill has the added momentum of bipartisan support. State Sen. Jane Orie, R-Pittsburgh, told Tartaglione this week that she would co-sponsor the bill.

            "With her support, I am encouraged and hopeful that we can turn this endeavor into a bipartisan effort because forced overtime is a prescription for disaster," Tartaglione said.

            The bill is one of several designed to take some of the burden off nurses that has forced as many as one in four to leave the profession.

            Other Democratic proposals will require minimum nurse staffing levels in hospitals and nursing homes.

            Tartaglione was joined at the rally by Auditor General Robert P. Casey, Jr. and state Sen. Allyson Schwartz, along with state Reps. Tim Solobay and Dan Surra.

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