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HR 378 Nurse and Patient Safety and Protection Act Remains in Committee

Legislative Update on Safe Patient Handling September 26, 2008

The national bill HR 378 “Nurse and Patient Safety and Protection Act of 2007” remains in committee.  The bill for safe patient handling was originally introduced two years ago on September 26, 2006, as HR 6182 “Nurse and Patient Safety and Protection Act of 2006,” by U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr., Democrat, Michigan District 14, calling for an amendment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to reduce injuries to patients, nurses, and other health care providers with a safe patient handling standard.

Representative John Conyers, Jr., re-introduced the bill as HR 378 “Nurse and Patient Safety and Protection Act of 2007” on January 10, 2007.  HR 378 would "direct the Secretary of Labor to issue an occupational safety and health standard to reduce injuries to patients, direct-care registered nurses, and other health care providers by establishing a safe patient handling standard."

If HR 378 is successful, a Federal Safe Patient Handling Standard, calling for “all health care facilities” to comply, will be enacted “to prevent musculoskeletal disorders for direct-care registered nurses and other health care providers working in health care facilities. This standard shall require the elimination of manual lifting of patients by direct-care registered nurses and other health care providers, through the use of mechanical devices, except during a declared state of emergency.”  

The last action on HR 378 was over a year ago.  HR 378 was referred on May 9, 2007, by two House Committees, the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on Workforce Protections, to the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.  As of this date, September 26, 2008, HR 378 remains in the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections where it has not yet had a hearing, and no hearing is scheduled.

Among the many justifications for the legislation are the following:

• Direct-care registered nurses rank 10th among all occupations for musculoskeletal disorders, sustaining injuries at a higher rate than laborers, movers, and truck drivers. In 2004, nurses sustained 8,800 musculoskeletal disorders, most of which (over 7,000) were back injuries. The leading cause of these injuries in health care are the result of patient lifting, transferring, and repositioning injuries.
  
  
• The physical demands of the nursing profession lead many nurses to leave the profession. Fifty-two percent of nurses complain of chronic back pain and 38 percent suffer from pain severe enough to require leave from work. Many nurses and other health care providers suffering back injury do not return to work.
  
  
• Patients are not at optimum levels of safety while being lifted, transferred, or repositioned manually. Mechanical lift programs can substantially reduce skin tears suffered by patients, allowing patients a safer means to progress through their care.