HB1003

Updated:
This bill has passed out of the Senate Committee without any of the changes recommended by Hoosiers.  Yesterday, passed second reading without amendments. There is little to stop it from becoming law.

H4ML Call to Action!

Are you concerned about the quality of care in Hospitals?

Staffing shortages have been exacerbated by vaccine mandates and the House is trying to correct shortages via dangerous HB1003 through temporary licensing & cutting back on student clinical hours without addressing mandates.

Here is the breakdown of issues with this bill:

1. The bill addresses temporary licensing for Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurses, Respiratory therapists, and Pharmacists. It creates a temporary fix but may actually cause a bigger problem once it expires. The bill ends the last day of the quarter in which the federal emergency ends. That means temporary licensees and their employers could have notice of any where from 3 months to as little as 3 days notice that the license expires. This could easily create a vacuum effect and cause immediate staffing issues.
2. Nursing students can get a temporary license prior to completing NCLEX, the MINIMUM competency licensing test. There are also no parameters on how long a student is permitted to work without completing the exam. This is very concerning, hospitals are desperate for staff and may take advantage of students in these positions. While working large numbers of hours to earn money and please their new employer students may not prioritize the exam over work. Students may also be at higher risk for burn out, mistakes, and moral injury.
3. The bill also offers temporary licensing to foreign nurses. We don't hold anything against foreign nurses, however the state has seen issues with language barriers creating dangerous situations for patients. This could be fixed with a simple amendment to require English competency.
4. The bill addresses nursing education allowing qualifying nursing programs to "increase enrollment at any rate the program considers appropriate." This is asking for trouble. Nursing faculty is difficult to obtain and there are no guidelines to keep the programs from over enrolling to increase. The bill adds that programs may be mostly staffed by part-time faculty and allows the school to replace important clinical hours with simulation lab up to 50%. This is astounding, clinical hours imperative for students to learn how to interact with patients and learn the skills that cannot be taught out of a book. This has significant potential to impair the education of our future nurses. These students may care for you or your loved ones.
5. Finally, they NEVER address vaccine mandates for students. It seems the House Republicans want to go above and beyond to allow licensing loopholes and potentially allow for bad practices in nursing education, yet they can't address the elephant in the room. Far to many students in health care tracts are being bullied, harassed, and even removed from their programs for not taking the vaccination. This seems incredibly unfair, once in the medical profession these students will have the right to exemptions for medical and religious reasons. Other students are choosing career paths outside of healthcare to avoid vaccine mandates.  This injustice must be corrected!
   

Call the Authors & your Rep and tell them: "HB1003 needs to be amended. Vote YES on Rep. Nisly's amendments calling for respect of religious exemptions for health care students and increased safety in temporary licenses and health care education."

Make 4 calls before 1pm this afternoon!

1. Ethan Manning 317-232-9619
2. Your State House Representative (learn who it is by replying: Find)
3. Brad Barrett 317-234-2993
4. J. Michael Davisson 317-232-9619

Don't forget to tell your friends, especially if they are in a medical profession.

Our Virtual Meeting dates have changed!

Join us via Zoom to learn more about what is happening. In case you missed our last email our meetings have changed to the 3rd Thursday of the month.

That means we will be meeting Thursday Jan 20th at 7pm EST

Register here

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank you,
Ashley