Senate Bill No. 584
(By Senators Bowman and Chafin)
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[Introduced February 16, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §30-7B-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the West Virginia Center for
Nursing; detailing the center's data collection
responsibilities and establishing that data submitted to the
center is confidential; and deleting a statutory provision
regarding establishment of a loan repayment program.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §30-7B-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7B. CENTER FOR NURSING.
§30-7B-4. Center's powers and duties.
The West Virginia Center for Nursing shall have the following
powers and duties:
(1) Establish a statewide strategic plan to address the
nursing shortage in West Virginia;
(2) Establish and maintain a database of statistical
information regarding nursing supply, demand and turnover rates in
West Virginia and future projections.
(A) The Center will be responsible for collecting data from
employers and nurses (LPN, RN, APN) on at least an annual basis.
The Center shall collaborate with employers and other state
agencies to develop the best method for data collection.
(B) The data shall include vacancy rates, annual turnover rate
and information about hard to fill vacancies for all levels of
nurses.
(C) As used in this article the term:
(i) "Vacancy rate" shall mean the number of vacant budgeted
nursing positions divided by the total number of budgeted nursing
positions at a point in time;
(ii)"Annual turnover rate" shall mean the number of nurses who
leave an organization in a year divided by the average number of
nurses employed in that year;
(iii) "Hard to fill vacancy" shall mean recruitment
difficulties experienced, due to a number of reasons including, but
not limited to, lack of applicants, applicants that lack the proper
qualifications, competition, and undesirable hours.
(D) Employers of nurses who are surveyed shall be required to
provide data annually by the deadline established by the Center.
(E) Data shall be reported by the center in aggregate form by
workforce region.
(F) Data shall be used by the Center to strategically plan for
recruitment and retention initiatives by region.
(G) Data received under this section that contains information
identifying specific patients or health care facilities is
confidential, is not subject to disclosure and may not be released
unless all identifying information is removed.
(3) Coordinate communication between the organizations that
represent nurses, health care providers, businesses, consumers,
legislators and educators;
(4) Enhance and promote recruitment and retention of nurses by
creating reward, recognition and renewal programs;
(5) Promote media and positive image building efforts for
nursing, including establishing a statewide media campaign to
recruit students of all ages and backgrounds to the various nursing
programs throughout West Virginia;
(6) Promote nursing careers through educational and
scholarship programs, programs directed at nontraditional students
and other workforce initiatives;
(7) Explore solutions to improve working environments for
nurses to foster recruitment and retention;
(8) Explore and establish
loan repayment and scholarship
programs designed to benefit nurses who remain in West Virginia
after graduation and work in hospitals and other health care
institutions;
(9) Establish grants and other programs to provide financial incentives for employers to encourage and assist with nursing
education, internships and residency programs;
(10) Develop incentive and training programs for long-term
care facilities and other health care institutions to use self-
assessment tools documented to correlate with nurse retention, such
as the magnet hospital program;
(11) Explore and evaluate the use of year-round day, evening
and weekend nursing training and education programs;
(12) Establish a statewide hotline and website for information
about the Center and its mission and nursing careers and
educational opportunities in West Virginia;
(13) Evaluate capacity for expansion of nursing programs,
including the availability of faculty, clinical laboratories,
computers and software, library holdings and supplies;
(14) Oversee development and implementation of education and
matriculation programs for health care providers covering certified
nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, registered
professional nurses, advanced nurse practitioners and other
advanced degrees;
(15) Seek to improve the compensation of all nurses, including
nursing educators; and
(16) Perform such other activities as needed to alleviate the
nursing shortage in West Virginia.
(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to detail the Center's data
collection responsibilities and establish that data submitted to
the Center is confidential. The bill further amends this section
by deleting a statutory provision regarding establishment of a loan
repayment program.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
)