March 2016 Legislative Update

GVNA 31st Annual Legislative Reception
GVNA's 31st Annual Leg Reception was held on Thursday, February 18th at St. John Fisher College. Over 150 people were in attendance, including nurses and nursing students along with legislators and/or their representatives. There were nursing students from Finger Lakes Community College, Finger Lakes Health College of Nursing, Genesee Community College, St. John Fisher College Wegmans School of Nursing and the University of Rochester. The nursing students were reminded that they can get free GVNA membership for one year after they graduate; all they need to do is apply online at www gvna.us. A special thanks to Rochester Regional Health Care for sponsoring this event and as a result, we could offer CEUs for the first time ever. There is never any charge for this event because of our generous nursing co-sponsors who supported this offering:
• Association of periOperative Registered Nurses/Upstate New York Chapter
• Finger Lakes Organization of Nurse Executives and Leaders
• Greater Rochester Area Finger Lakes Chapter/American Association of Critical Care Nurses
• Nurse Practitioner Association of Greater Rochester.
Our featured speaker was Edward J. Doherty of the Rochester-Monroe County Anti-Poverty Initiative (https://www.uwrochester.org/RochesterAnti-PovertyInitiative.aspx) and Marilyn Dollinger did an overview on legislative issues affecting patient care and the profession of nursing (http://ana-newyork.org/Main-Menu-Categories/Meetings/Reports/2015-2017-ANA-NY-Legislative-Agenda.html) Following the presentation, there was a question and answer period with legislators and/or their representative, which included:
• Jake Chard on behalf of Senator Rich Funke
• Senator Joe Robach
• Annie Chwiecko on behalf of Senator Pat Gallivan
• Jay Grasso on behalf of Senator Michael Ranzenhofer
• Assemblyman Harry Bronson
• Spencer Bernard on behalf of Assemblyman Brian Kolb
• Barbara Collins on behalf of Assemblyman Bill Nojay
• Assemblyman Mark Johns
• Robert Bergin on behalf of Assemblyman Joe Morelle
• Assemblyman Stephen Hawley
• Monroe County Legislator Tina Brown/District #1
• Monroe County Legislator George Hebert/District #15
• Monroe County Legislator Ernest Flagler-Mitchell/District #29

If you are interested in legislative issues, there are several opportunities for you in the near future:
• The Annual Lobby Day in Albany for the Nurse Practitioner Association will be on April 12th. There will be a report to follow next month.
• The Annual Lobby Day in Albany for the Coalition for the Advancement of Nursing Education (CANE) along with NYONEL and ANA-NY will be on a May 4, 2016. The flyer can be found on the GVNA website: https://gvna.nursingnetwork.com/nursing-events/33581-cane-lobby-day
• The BS in 10 bill (A: 3945) is sitting in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and nurses are being asked to contact members of this committee to encourage them to support this bill and to vote it out of committee. Local assemblymen who are on this committee include David Gantt, Stephen Hawley and Robert Oaks. If you are interested in weekly updates from the Coalition for the Advancement of Nursing Education (CANE), please contact Barbara Zittel at bzittel@live.com.
• To find out who represents you in the assembly, go to: www.assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
• To find out who represents you in the senate, go to: www.nysenate.gov/senators/
• If you are interested in joining GVNA's Legislative Committee, you can contact Nancy Iafrati at legislative.gvna@gmail.com or niafrati@brockport.edu