California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is committed to building a broad movement for transformative social change and confronting the powerful interests that dominate our economic and political system. We are proud to support legislation that reflects nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community. Learn more about all our current supported state legislation.
Arizona
The Arizona Patient Protection Act
State laws that require hospitals to provide minimum numerical registered nurse-to-patient ratios have proven to save patients’ lives, to improve patient outcomes, and to recruit and retain nurses in bedside care.
Arizona limits the number of patients that can be assigned to a registered nurse (RN) in the intensive care unit, but has no law to limit the number of patients assigned to an RN in other hospital units. As a result, RNs are consistently required to care for more patients than is safe, compromising patient care and negatively impacting patient outcomes. These dangerous conditions are causing far too many RNs to leave the hospital bedside. The Arizona Patient Protection Act would improve patient care and increase nurse retention by setting mandated, minimum, registered nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.
California
See all of our California legislation here.
Illinois
Safe Patient Limits Act (S.B. 2022)
Illinois has no law limiting the number of patients a registered nurse can care for at one time. As a result, registered nurses are consistently required to care for more patients than is safe, compromising patient care and negatively impacting patient outcomes.
Poor staffing endangers patients and drives nurses from the profession. This legislation would protect patients and improve health care by limiting the number of patients that can be assigned to a registered nurse, appropriately broken down by patient care area and designed to ensure safe and effective patient care.
Oppose » Nurse Licensure Compact Legislation
NNOC-Illinois/National Nurses United opposes H.B. 1338, H.B. 1652, H.B. 1706, H.B. 2614, H.B. 4369, H.B. 4920, S.B. 102, and any other Nurse Licensure Compact or Universal Recognition of Occupational Licenses (Compact) legislation introduced this session for the following reasons:
- Compact would endanger patients by ceding Illinois’ regulatory authority over nurse licensing and patient care to a quasi-public interstate commission.
- Compact conflicts with Illinois shield laws that protect nurses who provide reproductive and gender-affirming care.
- Compact would outsource Illinois jobs for nurses and other health care workers by expanding telehealth.
Safe and healthy workplaces support nurse recruitment and retention, not Compact.
State and Local Endorsements
We are proud to support congressional candidates that share nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community. See our full list of state and local endorsements here »