From the members

What is New York State Assembly Bill 3103 (A3103). What is it about? Is it important to nurses? In addition, if someone feels that it is important to nurses and their nursing practice what can be done to support passage of legislation this term.

A3103 is legislation that “Adds Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses to assaults of emergency medical professionals and provides for (a charge of) Class C and D felonies for physical injury (to the nurse). If some one is convicted of a class C felony in New York State that carries a prison sentence of 5-15 years and a Class D felony carries a sentence of 2 1/3 – 7 years in state prison. This legislation has passed in the New York State Senate and is currently in a committee in the Assembly called Codes Committee.

A committee, in some sense, does the groundwork and assesses the importance of a bill before it is brought before the entire Assembly for vote. The Codes Committee is charged with considering issues and legislation regarding the State’s criminal and civil justice system. Most of the legislation in this committee amends Criminal, Penal, Civil and Executive laws and rules.

I spoke with John Joyce, a legislative assistant, in Assemblyman Koon’s office last week regarding A3103. The time for passage of this bill is running out and if a citizen wanted to assist in the passage of this legislation now is the time to advocate for this bill. This years Assembly session ends in June. It is important that this bill is passed out of Codes Committee in the next few weeks, so it can be brought before the Assembly and voted on a then sent on to Governor Patterson for signature prior to the end of session this year.

Supporting this bill would only take a few minutes of your time with a few simple steps: 1. Call/ write/ or e-mail you local Assembly person and encourage them to sign on to Assemblyman Koon’s bill as a sponsor 2. Include in that letter some anecdotal information about assaults on staff in your emergency department 3. Let them this is important protection for Professional Nurses 4. Contact members of the Codes Committee, especially if one is representing your district and share this information with them as well

Finding your Assemblyperson is very easy: 1. Google New York State Assembly and click on the first entry, which is the Assembly home page. 2. Scroll down and look to the right side of the page below a box that says “ETHICS REFORM” here it says “your assembly member” all you do now is put in your zip code and your representatives web page come up on the screen. 3. Under their picture on the left hand side of the page is contact information

Finding Members of the Codes Committee: 1. On the NYS Assembly webpage about one half way down on the right had side there is a box that says “Committees, Commissions and Task Forces”, click on it 2. A list of committee members will appear as well as the committee chair person Joseph Lentol (from Kings County) 3. Click on the assemblypersons name and their assembly web page appears with all their contact and district information.

Our assemblypersons and their staff rely on constituent mail and phone calls to understand the importance (or lack of importance) an issue is in their district. If this is an important bill for you and your practice please take a moment and call or write do not let another year pass with Professional Nursing not getting the support it deservers for the law when the crime of assault is perpetrated on a nurse.

If you are running in to any problems or need some help please e-mail me I would be glad to assist in any way that I can debra_dibartolo@yahoo.com.


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