MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Molly Homan, Ohio Nurses Association
614-746-9914
Nurses to Deliver Hundreds of Letters to OSU Wexner Medical Center Admins
Nurses, Ohioans sign letters in response to center’s
recent opposition to safe patient care legislation
What: Nurses March, Deliver Letters to OSU Administrators
When: 2:30 p.m.
Who: Ohio Nurses Association and The Ohio State University Nurses Organization
Why: To demand The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center stand with Ohio nurses in support of safe patient care. Evidence points to a link between safe nurse staffing and safe patient care.
House Bill 456 – legislation that would make Ohio the 19th state to eliminate nurse mandatory overtime – recently stalled at the Ohio Statehouse due to recent opposition from The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center – one of Ohio’s largest medical institutions.
The bill aims to increase safe nurse staffing in Ohio by eliminating the potentially dangerous practice of mandatory overtime. Doing so would allow for proper planning to ensure high-quality patient care and safety. Studies show that mandatory overtime leads to nurse fatigue and burnout, which in turn leads to higher medical errors – the third leading cause of death in the United States.
The bill would make it illegal for nurses to be coerced into working mandatory overtime, with exceptions made for extraordinary circumstances like natural disasters and other emergent situations.
OSU utilizes that practice of nurse mandatory overtime as a scheduling tool and their recent opposition blocked the bill’s progress. Nurses expect a response for the Medical Center by January 11, 2019.
Where: Meiling Hall, 370 West 9th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210
Note: OSUNO President, Rick Lucas, will be available for comment before the march at 2:00pm.
About Ohio Nurses Association (ONA)
ONA is a powerful network of registered nurses whose goal is to end the practice of mandatory overtime for nurses in Ohio. Hospitals that engage in the dangerous practice of mandating nurses to work beyond their regularly schedule hours put their nurses at risk for fatigue which leads to medical errors, the third leading cause of death in the United States.
Nurses formed ONA in 1904 so they may have a powerful platform for the protection, promotion and advancement of quality nursing care for all Ohioans, beginning with Ohio’s Nurse Practice Act.
Today ONA still serves as the leading voice for all of Ohio’s 200,000+ RNs. ONA’s nurses have molded the nursing and patient care landscape in Ohio since the beginning of the 20th century.
More information is available at www.ohnurses.org.