![Senator Headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/4_3_small/public/huntley_1.jpg?itok=cPnKZ4Tb)
4/20/2010: Queensborough Community College of Nursing
Shirley L. Huntley
April 19, 2010
-
ISSUE:
- Higher Education
![](/sites/default/files/styles/760x377/public/%2804-20-10%29%2010-11-035_0.jpg?itok=9Xtuq33x)
Enacts the "safe staffing for quality care act" to require acute care facilities to implement certain direct-care nurse to patient ratios in all nursing units; sets minimum staffing requirements; requires every such facility to submit a documented staffing plan to the department on an annual basis and upon application for an operating certificate; requires acute care facilities to maintain staffing records during all shifts; authorizes nurses to refuse work assignments if the assignment exceeds the nurse's abilities or if minimum staffing is not present; requires public access to documented staffing plans; imposes civil penalties for violations of such provisions; establishes private right of action for nurses discriminated against for refusing any illegal work assignment.