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Workplace Issues
Updating the Law for the Practice of Nursing
This summer is an active time for nursing practice, the Iowa Nurses Association leadership and staff have been working on the following activities:
- Mental Health Definitions and Signature on Forms.
A meeting was convened by Rep. Mark Smith (D-Marshalltown) on June 30 of organizations interested in improving services to psych-mental health patients. Currently the Code of Iowa has numerous conflicting definitions of mental health professionals. For ARNPs, many of the forms say that a physician must sign, thereby fracturing treatment for individuals of any age. Rep. Smith hopes to get input from the multiple interested organizations by September 1, 2006 so that legislation can be drafted that all interested parties can agree to before its being introduced in the 2007 Legislative Session. Rep. Linda Upmeyer, ARNP (R-Garner) is involved in the process and seeks input from the nursing community as well.
Contacts with legislators, legislative candidates and candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor are strongly encouraged to discuss the challenges of providing health care to Iowans with psychiatric or mental health conditions, due in part to the legal definitions and inability of ARNPs to sign documents that only provide for a physician signature.
- Discipline and Due Process
In December of 2005 a Polk County District Court judge issued a decision to significantly restrict the amount of information that is allowed by a professional licensing board to be published in a statement of charges. In February 2006, Director of the Department of Public Health, Mary Hansen called a meeting of interested parties to discuss a legislative proposal in the Dept. of Public Health Omnibus bill. Since 1979, all the licensing boards have interpreted chapters 17A, 22, and 272C to require that the charges are “public documents” accessible to the licensee and to the public. The professional licensing boards sought amendment to the Iowa Code to confirm the long-standing interpretation of statement of charges being a public record. The Board of Directors of the Iowa Nurses Association took a position that said that due process should be guaranteed and names should be confidential until there were final findings.
Since the December 2005 court decision, the Des Moines Register published a number of stories that referred to the inability to provide more details on the charges because of the court’s decision. On June 15, 2006, the newspaper printed an editorial “Cases against doctors deserve public scrutiny”. The Iowa Nurses Association sent a letter to the editor which was edited in length and published on July 5, 2006 which was titled “Charges should be proven before public is informed”. INA’s main point was that professional licensees need to have due process that is afforded to them under the U.S. Constitution and Iowa Constitution.
- Arbitration Ruling on Discipline and Suspension
An arbitration decision was rendered on June 9, 2006 by an arbitrator with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services on a case between Mary Anne Kopera and her employer. Mary Anne had been employed for 32 years at her employer hospital and prior to 2005 had never received a written reprimand or suspension. The Arbitrator’s ruling of “no justification for disciplinary actions and suspensions” against the nurse was based on a lack of due process. (Arbitrator Rules No Just Cause for Discipline.)
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