Controversial regulations over nurse hospital staffing were removed from legislation Monday that will instead focus on preventing violence against nurses and studying the reasons why they burn out and leave the profession.
The result was an extraordinary compromise for a bill that was steamrolling through the Legislature, with backing by DFL leaders and the Minnesota Nurses Association, until Mayo Clinic raised objections. It was the final deal struck this session, and both the House and Senate passed the bill with bipartisan support shortly before they adjourned for the year, the Star Tribune reports.
The bill known as the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act was so fundamentally changed after that influential opposition that its sponsors retitled it the Nurse and Patient Safety Act.
The Mayo Clinic had threatened to relocate a billion-dollar expansion to another state if the nursing staffing committee requirements advanced. Lawmakers eventually agreed to a compromise — with influence from Gov. Tim Walz — that would exempt all of Mayo’s hospitals in southeastern Minnesota from the committee requirements. That only added to the bill’s controversy as other hospitals protested unequal treatment. Read more.
