Amendment #778 to H4400

Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Development Initiative

Representatives Khan of Newton, McMurtry of Dedham, O'Day of West Boylston, Garlick of Needham, Linsky of Natick, Ultrino of Malden, Rogers of Cambridge, Gordon of Bedford, Tosado of Springfield, Kelcourse of Amesbury and Barrows of Mansfield move to amend the bill by adding the following section:

"SECTION XXXX. Chapter 305 of the Acts of 2008 is hereby amended by striking out Section 33 and inserting in place thereof the following section:

SECTION 33. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, there shall be established and set up on the books of the commonwealth a separate fund to be known as the Massachusetts Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Development Trust Fund to which shall be credited any appropriations, bond proceeds or other monies authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited thereto, and additional funds, including federal grants or loans or private donations made available to the secretary of health and human services for this purpose. The executive office of health and human services shall hold the fund in an account separate and apart from other funds or accounts. Amounts credited to the fund shall be expended by the secretary of health and human services to carry out subsection (b). Any balance in the fund at the close of a fiscal year shall be available for expenditure in subsequent fiscal years and shall not revert to the General Fund.(b) The secretary shall administer the fund in consultation with a nursing advisory board established within, but not subject to the control of, the executive office of health and human services. The advisory board shall consist of 17 members who shall have a demonstrated background of leadership in nursing, including but not limited to: direct patient care, health care organization and systems operations, academic nursing, and clinical nursing education. Advisory board members shall have demonstrated experience across the continuum of health care settings and services, including, but not limited to, long-term institutional care, acute care, ambulatory care, community-based care, public health, school-based health care, advanced practice, and psychiatric nursing. The advisory board members shall include: The commissioner of public health or designee, the executive director of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing or designee; the executive director of the Health Policy Commission or designee; a representative from the Organization of Nurse Leaders; a representative of the American Nurses Association Massachusetts; a representative from the Massachusetts Association of Colleges of Nursing;  the Massachusetts/Rhode Island League for Nursing; a representative from the New England Regional Black Nurses Association; a representative from the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses; the Philippine Nurses Association; a representative of the Massachusetts Association from Public Health Nurses; a representative from the Massachusetts School Nurse Association; a representative of the Massachusetts Nurses Association; a nurse representative from the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association; a representative of AARP Massachusetts; a nurse representative of a veterans administration hospital; a representative of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, and a representative of the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts.

The board shall elect a chair from among its members and adopt bylaws for its proceedings. Members shall be appointed for staggered terms of 3 years, except for persons appointed to fill vacancies who shall serve for the balance of the unexpired term. No member shall serve more than 2 consecutive full terms.

(c) the fund shall be used to develop and support short-term and long-term strategies to develop and support strategies to address the shortage of qualified nurses across health care settings; to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce; to prepare and position nurses for roles in leadership and board governance; to allow nurses to practice to the full extent of their license, education and training; to increase the number of public higher education faculty members and students who participate in nursing programs; The secretary of health and human services may expend such funds as necessary for the administration of the Massachusetts Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Development Initiative. In furtherance of these public purposes, the secretary of health and human services shall expend funds in the Massachusetts Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Development trust fund for activities that are calculated to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce, access to nursing services across care settings,  increase the number of qualified nurses, nurse faculty and nursing students in Massachusetts, and to promote cross sector and interdisciplinary collaborations to increase innovations in nursing education and practice.

Grants and other disbursements and activities may involve, without limitation, organizations that provide health care services, higher education institutions with nursing programs, individual researchers or research teams within higher education or health care organizations, business and industry partnerships, regional alliances, workforce investment boards, organizations granted tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and other community groups which support and promote the nursing profession and the health of people living in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Grants and other disbursements and activities may support, without limitation: (i) the goal of rapidly increasing the number of nurses with baccalaureate level degree or higher; (ii) promoting full practice authority for advanced practice nurses in all care settings(iii) the development and use of innovative curricula, courses, programs and modes of delivering education in nursing; (iv) activities supporting cross-sector and/or multi-disciplinary partnerships, to improve the health of populations and develop, implement, share best practices and innovative programs relative to instruction, professional development and evidence-based nursing practice across the care continuum; (v) the development of an infrastructure to collect and analyze nursing workforce data including but not limited to, utilizing data collected by the board of registration in nursing through the license renewal process, assessing vacancy rates in areas of specialty practice including, but not limited to: operating rooms, obstetrics, labor and delivery, the emergency department, home care; assessing the diversity and the level of education of nurses practicing in Massachusetts; evaluating nurses’ appointments to corporate, non-profit, and health care boards of governance; (vi)the develop and implementation long-term programs and policies to effectively respond to these challenges; (vii) the development and funding of a nursing research agenda to support the goals and priorities identified by the Massachusetts Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Development initiative."

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #778 to H4400

Nursing and Allied Health Workforce Development Initiative