Statement on the Introduction of the Put a Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act

Washington, DC– Rep. Jan Schakowsky has introduced the Put a Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act, which would require nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities that receive Medicare and/or Medicaid reimbursement to have a direct-care Registered Nurse (RN) on duty 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Rep. Schakowsky issued the following statement regarding the bill:

“Did you know that nursing homes of any size, even several hundred beds, are not required to have a Registered Nurse (let alone a physician) on duty for more than 8 hours a day? Right now seniors and the disabled can go 16 hours without a Registered Nurse in the facility to identify and address their medical needs. As a result, patients are in danger.

The Put a Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act would ensure that there is a direct-care RN available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This is a common-sense bill would ensure that nursing facilities have a highly trained provider available whenever care is needed.

The need for at least one RN could not be more urgent. Over the past two decades, the medical intensity and complexity of care for nursing facility residents has increased dramatically. Medical innovation has helped patients to be discharged from hospitals sooner and live with previously fatal conditions longer. These patients are often discharged to a nursing home. The absence of RN staffing for up to 16 hours each day means that there is no one present who can respond when residents’ medical conditions suddenly change or deteriorate.

Registered Nurses are the only nursing personnel with the education and licensure to make the kind of interventions that could be necessary at any hour in a facility full of fragile patients, or to interact with other medical professionals in an emergency. In some states, RNs are allowed to prescribe drugs.

Putting a loved one in a nursing facility is always a difficult decision. We must ensure that seniors and the disabled in nursing homes are not harmed because there is no RN on site to take care of their needs. Every American deserves the right to age with dignity and respect, and I urge my colleagues to support the Put a Registered Nurse in the Nursing Home Act in order to guarantee proper care for our loved ones who reside in nursing homes nationwide.”

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