This Week at the AZ Legislature...

Hello Arizona Nurses!

Once again, our AzNA policy team had a busy week at the legislature with dozens of Arizona nurses at the Capitol for Healthcare Day on Wednesday, Feburary 16th. My heartfelt thanks to every nurse who joined us in the Rose Garden and for everyone who met with a legislator, attended a committee hearing, or sat in the House or Senate gallery to be recognized.

A very special thanks to AzNA’s Director of Operations, Wendy Knefelkamp, and AzNA’s CEO, Dawna Cato, for their tireless work to bring us together as a healthcare community on Wednesday. We couldn’t have done it without Wendy and Dawna’s amazing effort. Many dedicated members of AzNA’s public policy team were on site as well, and I heard some great feedback from legislator meetings and interactions. If you’re interested in getting involved with AzNA’s public policy committee, please email Dawna Cato at dawna@aznurse.org.

Recapping Week 6:

• One of AzNA’s flagship bills for this session, HB2434, continued forward, passing fully out of the House of Representatives. The next step for this bill is to be heard in the Senate Health and Human Services committee. We are awaiting a hearing date. This bill would require smoke evacuation systems or devices to be used in all operating rooms to decrease the risk of exposure to staff.

• On Monday 2/14, another one of AzNA’s flagship bills, HB2635, was heard and passed unanimously from the House Health and Human Services committee. The mirror bill, SB1311, was scheduled for a Senate Health and Human Services committee hearing on Wednesday 2/16, but was pushed to Monday 2/21. These bills address assaults to healthcare workers by proposing a multi-pronged approach to assault prevention. AzNA has been working hard to advance legislation to deal with workplace assault since 2020. We are optimistic that the strong support that we’ve built at the legislature over the past years will help us to get these bills through their respective chambers and signed into law to make healthcare workplaces safer for nurses and all of our colleagues. ER nurse John Fraleigh did a great job of testifying in the House on this bill, and will add his voice to the Senate committee hearing as well. If you haven’t already used the RTS system to sign in your support on SB1311, please do that now. (See the info and link for RTS below.)

• On Wednesday 2/16, AzNA’s third flagship bill, HB2691, passed the House Appropriations Committee. This bill proposes a multi-pronged approach to bolster and increase the nursing workforce by dedicating funds to support training, preceptorships, and transition-to-practice programs. Your AzNA legislative team, along with a broad coalition of partners, continues their hard work on this bill as it travels next to the House Rules committee and then to a full House vote before it can move to the Senate. AzNA’s lobbyist Kathy Busby gave compelling testimony in support of this bill, along with representatives from Dignity, Maricopa Community Colleges, Touchstone, and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joanne Osborne. As with the healthcare worker assault bills, you can help by using the RTS system to sign in your support on HR2691.

Looking Ahead to Week 7:

• Today (Monday 2/21), your AzNA legislative team will be testifying at the Senate Health and Human Services committee on SB1311, the assault bill.

• At this point, no new bills can be introduced and any bills that have not yet had a hearing in their originating chamber are effectively dead (stay tuned in a few weeks for the rise of the zombie bills, though…more on that later). Most of the other bills that AzNA has been following are waiting to be heard in Rules committee, on the House or Senate floor, or waiting for committee agenda assignments in their second chamber, like the OR smoke bill.

What can you do this week to support AzNA’s public policy agenda?

Don’t forget to practice armchair advocacy with just a few clicks of your mouse by using the Arizona Legislature’s RTS system. (Remember that although RTS stands for “Request to Speak” it doesn’t actually involve speaking!) Although there aren’t many committee hearings this week, we’ll be geared up once all the bills switch over to their opposite chamber soon.

Helpful Resources:

• AzNA’s public policy agenda
• RTS manual
  • Note that you must activate your RTS account at a designated kiosk in the state capitol (or in downtown Tucson at 400 W. Congress St.) before you use it the first time. If you need help with that, please email dawna@aznurse.org and we can assist

One final note of erratum: I previously reported that AzNA signed in opposed to SB1052. That was my mistake alone; AzNA did not sign in at all on SB1052.

Heather Ross, DNP, PhD

AzNA Government Affairs Officer