SF1384 - Nurse and Patient Safety Act

• Establishes the "Nurse and Patient Safety Act" and modifies the health professional education loan forgiveness program to add hospital nurses employed by nonprofit hospitals as an eligible profession with a 2-year service obligation.

• Expands loan forgiveness eligibility to include dentists serving state public program enrollees or uninsured patients through sliding fee schedules, and adds advanced dental therapists and dental therapists practicing in designated rural areas.

• Requires hospitals to develop, implement, and annually review preparedness and incident response action plans for acts of violence, including risk assessments, staff training on de-escalation, procedures for worker reporting without retaliation, and coordination with law enforcement and other employers.

• Increases the maximum penalty for hospital non-compliance with violence prevention requirements from $250 to $10,000, and requires hospitals to submit action plans and annual reviews to the commissioner beginning January 1, 2025.

• Directs the commissioner of health to publish a public report on nursing workforce status in hospitals by January 1, 2026, and allows Commissioner of Human Services to define reasonable child care costs as direct educational expenses for nursing facility scholarship recipients.