West Virginia enacts law restricting nurse overtime
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia nurses ended a four-year struggle Wednesday when Gov. Bob Wise signed into law a measure barring private hospitals from forcing them to work routine overtime.
Surrounded by dozens of white-uniformed nurses, Wise echoed health care and union officials by saying the law would improve patient safety and prevent medical mistakes by nurses exhausted by shifts of 16 hours or more.
“We cannot ask nurses to work hours on end, jeopardizing patient and employee lives,” Wise said.
Beginning May 17, nurses who work more than 12 hours must be allowed at least eight hours off. The law has exceptions for emergencies such as disease outbreaks, terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Also, nurses would be required to work overtime to complete a single patient procedure. Nurses who agree to work overtime would be unaffected.
Painstakingly crafted by lawmakers with the state nurse and hospital associations, the law will cover an estimated 10,100 nurses at West Virginia’s 60 private hospitals. Four state-run hospitals with around 270 nurses and four veterans’ hospitals run by the federal government will remain unaffected.
The American Nurses Association said at least 30 states have enacted legislation or regulations addressing mandatory overtime.
West Virginia Nurses Association member Cheryl Brumfield said the law should help recruitment and ease the state’s shortage of both licensed professional and registered nurses. State officials estimate RN vacancies will hit 7,000 by 2008.
“This will help keep students in nursing because they’ll have security that they won’t be stressed beyond their capabilities,” said Brumfield, who also teaches at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.
Defining the circumstances in which nurses must work beyond a shift’s end helped ease concerns of hospital administrators, said Steven Summer, president of the West Virginia Hospital Association.
The hospital group had been the main stumbling block in three previous efforts to craft a nurse overtime law. Delegates Dr. Dan Foster and Corey Palumbo, both D-Kanawha, worked over the last year to negotiate differences between the groups.
“The nurses got our attention, and then Dr. Foster and Palumbo helped us work out our differences,” Summer said. “This is a national model for this type of legislation.”