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 "Hospital patients depend on good nurses to help them get better.
We need to make sure that enough nurses with the right expertise are
working at any given time," said Blagojevich. "This law will help
ensure that skilled nurses are available around the clock."
Because care situations vary depending on the illness of the
patients and the size of the facilities, the plans mandated by
Senate Bill 867 must be flexible and be developed by health care
providers as well as administrators. In preparing the plans and
establishing how many nurses are necessary for each shift, staff
must consider the volume of patients, the complexity of care needed
for patients in each unit, the number of referrals needed for
patients and the need for special equipment and technology.
The staffing plans must also determine how many nurses at
specific expertise and skill levels should be assigned to each
inpatient care unit. These plans must include the identification of
additional registered nurses available for patient care when
unexpected needs exceed the nursing staffing plan. The written
staffing plan must be posted in a location easily accessible to
patients and staff.
"Nurses deserve to know what to expect when they report for their
shifts. A well-considered staffing plan developed for and by their
peers will make it easier for each nurse to provide the level of
care each patient needs," said Ronen, Senate sponsor of the
legislation. "This measure also gives hospitals the flexibility they
need to change staffing levels as necessary to meet special
challenges."
"Staffing by patient acuity, with involvement of direct care
nurses who really know the patient’s needs, is what the Illinois
Nurses Association has been advocating for since the mid-’90s," said
Pam Robbins, second vice president of the association. "We believe
this bill will improve the quality of patient care by giving
front-line nurses a voice in determining safe, adequate nurse
staffing levels. And having adequate numbers of nurses gives nurses
the time to do what we do best -- provide personalized patient care.
More nurses will stay in the profession if they are empowered to do
the care they love to do."
"We need to make sure that patients get the best possible care
when they are in the hospital. This law requires proper planning and
coordination to ensure there will be the right number of nurses on
each shift," said Golar, who sponsored the legislation in the House.
The information gathered from the development of staffing plans
will also benefit educators and community health planners who are
charged with developing mid- and long-range plans for community
health care. By knowing what current needs are, they can work to
retain, recruit or train enough nurses with the right skills to
maintain high-quality health care. Consistent staffing plans will
also encourage retention of nurses currently working in hospitals by
improving the work environment and increasing job satisfaction.
The number of potential caregivers, including nurses, is
projected to decrease 4.2 percent between 2000 and 2020, while the
number of those who need care is projected to increase by 31
percent. All told, by 2020 Illinois could be facing a shortage of
over 21,000 nurses. According to region-by-region numbers put
together by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity, the state currently has a nursing shortage of 7 percent
(vacancies versus jobs filled), and that shortage is projected to
grow to almost 8,000 registered nurses and 1,200 licensed practical
nurses (per year, projected through 2010).
Senate Bill 867 is effective on Jan. 1, 2008.
Since 2003, Blagojevich has signed several important measures to
meet the need for more nurses in Illinois. Some of those measures
include:
The center was established
in 2006 within the Department of Financial and Professional
Regulation to develop a strategic plan for nursing manpower in
Illinois, maintain a database on nursing supply and demand, and
develop nursing retention and recruitment initiatives.
Nursing educator scholarships: Since every additional faculty
member in nursing can add 10 more nurses to the work force, the
governor created a nursing educator scholarship that will make
pursuing a career in nursing education more attractive and more
affordable in the state of Illinois.
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Grants to nursing schools:
Capacity in nursing colleges
around the country is reaching the breaking point. In fact, over
26,000 qualified applicants were turned away from
baccalaureate-granting nursing programs in the United States because
of faculty shortages, crowded clinical facilities and funding
shortfalls. In Illinois, over 1,100 qualified applicants were not
admitted. In order to increase the number of faculty, and the number
of graduating nurses as a result, Illinois makes competitive grants
available to nursing schools, to be used to hire more faculty
members or create evening or weekend training programs, among other
options.
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Expand and improve the nursing scholarship program: The
existing nursing education scholarship law has been improved to
allow merit, in addition to financial need, to be taken into
consideration when determining recipients of the nursing
scholarship. Taking in account merit in awarding these scholarships
will improve the successful completion rate of nursing education
programs as well as helping Illinois produce high-quality nurses.
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Student loan repayment for nurse educators: There is a new
provision in Illinois that creates a loan forgiveness program for
students who choose to become nursing faculty. The Illinois Nurse
Educator Loan Repayment Program, through the Illinois Student
Assistance Commission, is an incentive for nurses to continue
teaching.
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Critical Skills Shortage Initiative: The governor made a
commitment in his 2005 State of the State speech to address the
shortage of health care workers through his Critical Skills Shortage
Initiative. An investment of $18 million is being made statewide to
ensure that every region of the state has a well-trained and
equipped work force in the health care industry. Through an
innovative approach that is currently being replicated by Indiana,
local work force investment boards, area employers, economic
development professionals, educators and service providers are
developing individualized strategies to address local employment
needs and get more health care professionals into the work force.
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Streamlining the license process: Through a coordinated
effort by the governor’s office, the Department of Financial and
Professional Regulation, and the Illinois State Police, 800
nurse-licensing applications were reviewed and approved since the
governor’s announcement in the State of the State address. Since
2001, Illinois has required nursing professionals to submit to a
background check as part of the application process. A backlog of
more than 1,800 applications had built up since the law was enacted.
Both IDFPR and ISP have developed comprehensive guidelines for
dealing with licensed fingerprint vendors to ensure that backlogs do
not recur in the future.
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Keeping nurses in Illinois: A new law enables advanced
practice nurses to be licensed in more than one specialty without
having multiple graduate degrees as long as they have the
educational and clinical experience to be nationally certified. This
encourages highly trained advanced practice nurses to stay in
Illinois by making it easier for them to advance in their careers.
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Establishing a first-in-the-nation externship program: Nurses
who are licensed under the laws of another state or territory of the
U.S., primarily from Puerto Rico, who wish to practice in Illinois
and are preparing to take the National Council Licensure
Examination, are now allowed to work under the direct supervision of
a registered professional nurse licensed in Illinois while they are
enrolled in a course that prepares them for the licensure exam and
acclimates them to nursing and health care delivery in our state.
This increases diversity within the nursing profession and prepares
nurses educated in a U.S. territory for practice in Illinois.
[Text from file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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