Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Safety and Quality Care Act of 2023. Introduced in the Senate on 3/30/23 by Sherrod Brown (Dem of Ohio).  This bill amends an act to establish direct care registered nurse-to-patient staffing ratio requirements in hospitals. It was referred to the Senate HELP Committee on the same day.

A Bill to Amend the Public Health Service Act to Support and Stabilize the Existing Nursing Workforce. This bill aims to establish programs to increase the numbers of nurses, and for other purposes.  This bill was introduced to the Senate by Jeff Merkley (Dem of Oregon) on 3/30/23. This bill aims to increase the number of nurses in the workforce, but really doesn’t say how.  It was referred to the Senate HELP Committee on 3/30/23.

Workplace Violence Prevention for Healthcare and Social Service Workers Act. This bill requires certain employers in the health care and social service sectors, and certain employers in sectors that conduct activities similar to the activities in the health care and social service sectors, to develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan and carry out other activities or requirements to protect health care workers, social service workers, and other personnel from workplace violence.  Each developed plan shall be developed and implemented with the meaningful participation of direct care employees, other employees, and employee representatives, and the plan shall be tailored and specific to conditions and hazards for the covered facility or the covered service, including patient-specific risk factors and risk factors specific to each work area or unit; shall be suitable for the size, complexity, and type of operations at the covered facility or for the covered service, and remain in effect at all times; and may be in consultation with stakeholders or experts who specialize in workplace violence prevention, emergency response, or other related areas of expertise for all relevant aspects of the Plan. With respect to each work area and unit at the covered facility or while covered employees are performing the covered service, risk assessment and identification of workplace violence risks and hazards to employees exposed to such risks and hazards (including environmental risk factors and patient-specific risk factors). A s soon as practicable after a workplace violence incident, risk, or hazard of which a covered employer has knowledge, the employer shall conduct an investigation of such incident, risk, or hazard under which the employer shall review the circumstances of the incident, risk, or hazard, and whether any controls or measures implemented pursuant to the Plan of the employer were effective; and solicit input from involved employees, their representatives, and supervisors about the cause of the incident, risk, or hazard, and whether further corrective measures (including system-level factors) could have prevented the incident, risk, or hazard. Finally, a violence log must be maintained, and each violent incident log shall be maintained by a covered employer for each covered facility controlled by the employer and for each covered service being performed by a covered employee on behalf of such employer.