HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 11-04 Senator Wiger receives Minnesota Nurses Association Award MAPLEWOOD REVIEW2/19/2016 Senator Wiger receives Minnesota Nurses Association Award I Lillie Suburban Newspapers - LillieNews.com
Senator Wiger receives Minnesota
Nurses Association Award
Submitted by adminl on Wed, 11/04/2015 - 8:19am
Senator Chuck Wiger presents his bill, S.F. 1071, on workplace
violence prevention to the Health and Human Services Budget
Division on April 15. Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell and
Nurse Simone (Nora) Jordan, testified in support of the bill.
(submitted photo)
Senator Chuck Wiger, DFL -Maplewood, has recently been awarded the 2015 Public Official Award by the Minnesota Nurses
Association in recognition of his work on S.F. 1071, the Violence against Health Care Workers Bill. Attacks on health care
workers have been in the news more regularly in recent years, most dramatically in the case of an attack on four nurses at St.
John's Hospital almost one year ago.
"No one deserves to feel unsafe in theirjob," remarked Sen. Wiger. "The end goal of this legislation is to create a safer
workplace for all health care professionals, and a system for violent acts to be reported and recorded, so that hospitals can
better track why and where violence is happening in an effort to reduce and eventually end all violence."
The bill requires hospitals to have a violence prevention plan by early 2016. The plan must be drafted by a committee of
hospital staff, including health care workers. Hospitals also will be required to offer violence prevention training. The legislation,
signed by Governor Mark Dayton, is designed to provide adequate training, staffing, and security to healthcare workers who
are faced with workplace violence.
"Our healthcare teams are quite literally life-savers, and they deserve the peace of mind they need at their jobs to care for their
patients," Wiger said. "I am honored to have received this recognition, and hope that my colleagues in the legislature will
continue to support our efforts to minimize violence in the workplace."
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