HB 170: "An Act relating to limitations on mandatory overtime work for nurses and certified nurse aides."
00 HOUSE BILL NO. 170 01 "An Act relating to limitations on mandatory overtime work for nurses and certified 02 nurse aides." 03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 * Section 1. AS 18.20.400 is amended to read: 05 Sec. 18.20.400. Limitations on nursing overtime. (a) Except as provided in 06 (c) of this section, a nurse or certified nurse aide in a health care facility may not be 07 required or coerced, directly or indirectly, 08 (1) to work beyond a predetermined and regularly scheduled shift that 09 is agreed to by the nurse or certified nurse aide and the health care facility; or 10 (2) to accept an assignment of overtime if, in the judgment of the nurse 11 or certified nurse aide, the overtime would jeopardize patient or employee safety. 12 (b) Except as provided by (c) of this section, after working a predetermined 13 and regularly scheduled shift that is agreed to by the nurse or certified nurse aide and 14 the health care facility as authorized by (a)(1) of this section, a nurse or certified
01 nurse aide in a health care facility shall be allowed not less than 10 consecutive hours 02 of off-duty time immediately following the end of that work. 03 (c) Subsection (a) of this section does not apply to 04 (1) a nurse or certified nurse aide who is employed by a health care 05 facility providing services for a school, school district, or other educational institution, 06 when the nurse or certified nurse aide is on duty for more than 14 consecutive hours 07 during an occasional special event, such as a field trip, that is sponsored by the 08 employer; 09 (2) a nurse or certified nurse aide voluntarily working overtime on an 10 aircraft in use for medical transport, so long as the shift worked is allowable under 11 regulations adopted by the Board of Nursing based on accreditation standards adopted 12 by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems; 13 (3) a nurse or certified nurse aide on duty in overtime status 14 (A) who is participating in the performance of a medical 15 procedure or surgery that has begun but has not been completed; 16 (B) because of an unforeseen emergency situation that could 17 jeopardize patient safety; in this subparagraph, "unforeseen emergency 18 situation" means an unusual, unpredictable, or unforeseen situation caused by 19 an act of terrorism, disease outbreak, natural disaster, major disaster as defined 20 in 42 U.S.C. 5122, or disaster emergency under AS 26.23.020 or 26.23.140, 21 but does not include a situation in which a health care facility has reasonable 22 knowledge of increased patient volume or inadequate staffing because of some 23 other cause, if that cause is foreseeable; 24 (C) because the health care facility has a scheduling problem 25 caused by unforeseen weather conditions that prevent a second nurse from 26 arriving at the facility to relieve the nurse on duty, or a second certified nurse 27 aide from arriving at the facility to relieve the certified nurse aide on duty; 28 in this subparagraph, "unforeseen weather conditions" means unusual, 29 unpredictable, or unforeseen weather so extreme as to impair travel to the 30 health care facility, but does not include a situation in which the health care 31 facility has knowledge of the weather conditions far enough in advance to act
01 so that a scheduling problem under this subparagraph can reasonably be 02 avoided; or 03 (D) for nurses, at a health care facility located in a rural 04 community that declares a temporary nurse staffing emergency under 05 AS 18.20.410(a) [AS 18.20.410]; 06 (E) for certified nurse aides, at a health care facility located 07 in a rural community that declares a temporary certified nurse aide 08 staffing emergency under AS 18.20.410(b); 09 (4) a nurse or certified nurse aide fulfilling on-call time that is agreed 10 on by the nurse or certified nurse aide and a health care facility before it is scheduled 11 unless fulfilling the on-call time would, in the nurse's or certified nurse aide's 12 judgment, create an unacceptable risk to the physical safety of the nurse or certified 13 nurse aide, a patient, or an employee of the facility; 14 (5) a nurse or certified nurse aide voluntarily working overtime so 15 long as the work is consistent with professional standards and safe patient care and 16 does not exceed 14 consecutive hours; 17 (6) a nurse or certified nurse aide voluntarily working beyond 80 18 hours in a 14-day period so long as the nurse or certified nurse aide does not work 19 more than 14 consecutive hours without a 10-hour break and the work is consistent 20 with professional standards and safe patient care; 21 (7) a nurse or certified nurse aide who 22 (A) [IS EMPLOYED 23 (i) AT A PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT HOSPITAL 24 THAT TREATS ONLY CHILDREN OR AT A RESIDENTIAL 25 PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT CENTER, AS DEFINED UNDER 26 AS 18.07.111, THAT TREATS ONLY CHILDREN; IN THIS SUB- 27 SUBPARAGRAPH, "CHILDREN" MEANS PERSONS UNDER 19 28 YEARS OF AGE WHO ARE RECEIVING PSYCHIATRIC 29 TREATMENT FROM A HOSPITAL OR CENTER OR WHO ARE 30 RESIDING IN A CENTER AND WHO WERE UNDER 18 YEARS 31 OF AGE ON THE DATE THAT THE TREATMENT OR PERIOD
01 OF RESIDENCE COMMENCED; 02 (ii) AT A RESIDENTIAL PSYCHIATRIC 03 TREATMENT CENTER AS DEFINED UNDER AS 47.32.900; OR 04 (iii) AT A SECURE RESIDENTIAL PSYCHIATRIC 05 TREATMENT CENTER AS DEFINED UNDER AS 47.12.990; 06 (B)] voluntarily agrees to work a 16-hour shift for the period 07 between 5:00 p.m. on a Friday and 8:00 a.m. on the Monday that immediately 08 follows and receives pay and benefits for that work that are equal to or greater 09 than the pay and benefits the nurse or certified nurse aide would receive for 10 working 20 regular hours in the same position; and 11 (B) [(C)] during the period described in (A) [(B)] of this 12 paragraph, does not work a 16-hour shift consecutive with another shift of 13 eight hours or more without an intervening break of at least eight hours; 14 (8) the first two hours on overtime status when the health care facility 15 is obtaining another nurse to work in place of the nurse who is in overtime status, or 16 certified nurse aide to work in place of the certified nurse aide who is in overtime 17 status, so long as the nurse or certified nurse aide who is in overtime status is not on 18 duty for more than 14 consecutive hours. 19 * Sec. 2. AS 18.20.410 is repealed and reenacted to read: 20 Sec. 18.20.410. Temporary staffing emergency. (a) If, after making a 21 substantial and reasonable effort to increase the number of available nurses on staff 22 and failing in that effort, a health care facility in a rural community determines it is not 23 able to meet the overtime limitations in AS 18.20.400 without putting the safety of its 24 patients at risk of serious harm, the health care facility may declare a temporary nurse 25 staffing emergency. 26 (b) If, after making a substantial and reasonable effort to increase the number 27 of available certified nurse aides on staff and failing in that effort, a health care facility 28 in a rural community determines it is not able to meet the overtime limitations in 29 AS 18.20.400 without putting the safety of its patients at risk of serious harm, the 30 health care facility may declare a temporary certified nurse aide staffing emergency. 31 (c) Immediately after declaring a temporary staffing emergency under (a) or
01 (b) of this section, a health care facility shall file with the division of labor standards 02 and safety, Department of Labor and Workforce Development, a report that includes a 03 copy of the signed writing required under (d) of this section. A report under this 04 subsection is a public document. 05 (d) A declaration of a temporary staffing emergency under this section 06 (1) must be made in writing, signed by the administrator of the health 07 care facility or the administrator's designee, that describes the facility's reasonable 08 effort to avoid the temporary staffing emergency; and 09 (2) may not exceed 30 days. 10 (e) In addition to the requirements of (a) - (d) of this section, a health care 11 facility shall notify the legislature immediately by delivery of a written report to the 12 Alaska Legislative Council each time the facility declares a temporary nurse staffing 13 emergency under (a) of this section or a temporary certified nurse aide staffing 14 emergency under (b) of this section that exceeds two occurrences of its type in a six- 15 month period that begins on January 1 or July 1 of the year in which the declaration 16 occurs, or three occurrences of its type in the one-year period that begins on January 1 17 of that year. A report under this subsection must include a copy of each report that is 18 required of the health care facility under (c) of this section for the one-year period that 19 begins on January 1 of the year the excessive declaration under this subsection occurs. 20 * Sec. 3. AS 18.20.420 is amended to read: 21 Sec. 18.20.420. Health care facility complaint process for overtime work 22 by nurses or certified nurse aides. A health care facility shall provide for an 23 anonymous process by which a patient, [OR] a nurse, or a certified nurse aide may 24 make a complaint about staffing levels and patient safety that relate to overtime work 25 by nurses or certified nurse aides and to limitations on overtime work by nurses or 26 certified nurse aides under AS 18.20.400. 27 * Sec. 4. AS 18.20.440 is amended to read: 28 Sec. 18.20.440. Prohibition of retaliation. A health care facility may not 29 discharge, discipline, threaten, discriminate against, penalize, or file a report with the 30 Board of Nursing against a nurse or certified nurse aide for exercising rights under 31 AS 18.20.400 - 18.20.499 or for the good faith reporting of an alleged violation of
01 AS 18.20.400 - 18.20.499. 02 * Sec. 5. AS 18.20.450(a) is amended to read: 03 (a) A health care facility shall file with the division of labor standards and 04 safety, Department of Labor and Workforce Development, a semiannual report on a 05 form provided by the department. The report for the six-month period ending June 30 06 must be filed before the following August 1, and the report for the six-month period 07 ending December 31 must be filed before the following February 1. The report must 08 include, for each nurse or certified nurse aide employed by the health care facility or 09 under contract with the health care facility, the number of overtime hours worked and 10 the number of hours the nurse or certified nurse aide was on call. A health care 11 facility that does not employ a nurse or certified nurse aide who worked overtime 12 hours or who was on call during the reporting period is not required to describe hours 13 worked as overtime and on-call hours for individual nurses or certified nurse aides 14 but may instead complete the report by stating on the form that there are no reportable 15 hours. 16 * Sec. 6. AS 18.20.460 is amended to read: 17 Sec. 18.20.460. Provisions not applicable to nurses or certified nurse aides 18 employed in federal or tribal facilities. The provisions of AS 18.20.400 - 18.20.499 19 do not apply to a nurse or certified nurse aide employed in a health care facility that 20 is operated by 21 (1) the federal government; or 22 (2) a tribal organization as defined in 25 U.S.C. 450b. 23 * Sec. 7. AS 18.20.499(4) is amended to read: 24 (4) "on-call" means a status in which a nurse or certified nurse aide 25 must be ready to report to the health care facility and may be called to work by the 26 health care facility; 27 * Sec. 8. AS 18.20.499(5) is amended to read: 28 (5) "overtime" means the hours worked in excess of a predetermined 29 and regularly scheduled shift that is agreed to by a nurse or certified nurse aide and a 30 health care facility; 31 * Sec. 9. AS 18.20.499 is amended by adding a new paragraph to read:
01 (7) "certified nurse aide" means a person who is certified as a nurse 02 aide by the Board of Nursing under AS 08.68.