releases: http://franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=3343
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| http://franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=3343 | Sen. Franken Reintroduces Bill to Help Protect Minnesota Nurses and Health Care Workers from Workplace Injuries | 2015-12-17 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Democrat | House | MN | Al Franken | F000457 | franken.senate.gov | legacy | U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)has reintroduced legislationto address the hazards that nurses and health care workers face when manually lifting patients.The Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act, would help ensure that nurses and health care workerswho too often suffer serious, preventable injuries due to unsafe lifting practicescan do their job more safely.Our nurses and health care workers provide essential care to millions of Americans, and they shouldnt have to sacrifice their safety or their livelihood to do so,Sen. Franken said.Every year, thousands of these caregivers sustain serious injuries as a result of manually lifting patients. These injuries can cause a lifetime of chronic pain and even force nurses to leave the profession permanently. My bill would ensure that nurses and health care workers have the tools they need to do their jobs safely, which would prevent injuries, increase patient safety, and reduce costs.This bill, which was also reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), has the support of key organizations that have long-sought reforms for nurses and health care workers.Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), an organization that represents thousands of nurses,said,Nurses and other healthcare workers put their patients first. Sometimes, these workers get physically hurt by helping the people they care for. This bill provides a wonderful solution for patients, nurses and other healthcare workers by creating a federal standard on safe patient handling, mobility and injury prevention. As the nations second-largest nurses union, the AFT supports Sen. Franken and Rep. Conyers efforts to give our members a safe healthcare environment in which they can do what they do bestprovide the highest-quality of care for their patients.The American Nurses Association (ANA) President PamelaF. Cipriano, commended Sen. Franken and Rep. Conyers for the introduction of the Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act.Every day, nurses and other health care workers suffer debilitating and often career-ending musculoskeletal disorders when they manually lift or move patients, and work in pain. Manual lifting is an unacceptable risk and practice when we have the technology and knowledge to significantly reduce injuries. This bill signals that workers are not expendable and injuries are not tolerable as just part of the job. It is a much needed step in the right direction to implementing safer programs that will help tosave and extend the careers of thousands of registered nurses,said Cipriano, noting that safe lifting technology and simple devices also prevent injuries to patients and preserve their dignity.TheNurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2015would help decrease work-related injuries by requiring the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to promulgate a health and safety standard that would require the use of mechanical lifts and safe lifting practices to minimize the risk of injury.Sen. Frankenwho serves as the top Democrat of the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safetyhas fought to improve safety for American workers since joining the Senate. He first introduced legislation to implement safe patient handling procedures in 2009, and earlier this yearhe introducedthe Protecting American Workers Actto expand the number of safe workplaces and make it harder to violate workplace safety laws. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |