In a recent session of the Pennsylvania state legislature, both the Senate and the House passed a bill limiting the way hospitals and other healthcare facilities deal with overtime for their nurses and other healthcare workers.

Nursing Overtime Bill Passes Nearly Unanimously

The Pennsylvania Senate passed the bill unanimously (49-0) and the House passed it by nearly the same margin (189-11).  Governor Ed Rendell is expected to sign the bill into law.

The new law will take effect July 1, 2009 and would ban facilities from requiring mandatory overtime. After 12 hours on a shift, nurses may voluntarily stay and work additional hours but could not be required to do so or have their jobs threatened.

The article at Medical News Today cited a few exceptions to the ban on overtime:

“. . . unforeseeable, declared national, state or municipal emergency; if there is a highly unpredictable and extraordinary event, such as a terrorist attack; or when a facility has a large amount of unforeseen absences by employees.”

This is an important step towards providing for safer patient care.  Nurses and other healthcare workers will be able to better focus on good patient care when they are better rested and not overworked.