By: Klick (Senate Sponsor - Perry) H.B. No. 2410
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 2019;
May 10, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on Health &
Human Services; May 20, 2019, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 20, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a request for a nursing peer review committee
determination.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 303.005, Occupations Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (b) and (d) and adding Subsections (b-1) and
(b-2) to read as follows:
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (b-1), if [If] a person
who is required to establish a nursing peer review committee under
Section 303.0015 requests a nurse to engage in conduct that the
nurse believes violates a nurse's duty to a patient, the nurse may
request, on a form developed [or approved] by the board or on
another form that meets standards developed by the board, a
determination by a nursing peer review committee under this chapter
of whether the conduct violates a nurse's duty to a patient.
(b-1) If a nurse is unable to complete a form required by
Subsection (b) due to immediate patient care needs, the nurse may
request a nursing peer review committee determination by orally
notifying the nurse's supervisor of the request. After receiving
oral notification of a request, the nurse's supervisor shall record
in writing:
(1) the name of the nurse making the request;
(2) the date and time of the request;
(3) the location where the conduct or assignment that
is the subject of the request occurred;
(4) the name of the person who requested the nurse
engage in the conduct or made the assignment that is the subject of
the request;
(5) the name of the supervisor recording the request;
(6) a brief explanation of why the nurse is requesting
a nursing peer review committee determination; and
(7) a description of the collaboration between the
nurse and the supervisor.
(b-2) To be a valid request for a nursing peer review
committee determination, the written record prepared under
Subsection (b-1) must be signed and attested to by the requesting
nurse and the nurse's supervisor who prepared the written record.
(d) If a nurse requests a peer review determination under
Subsection (b) or (b-1) and refuses to engage in the requested
conduct pending the peer review, the determination of the peer
review committee shall be considered in any decision by the nurse's
employer to discipline the nurse for the refusal to engage in the
requested conduct, but the determination is not binding if a nurse
administrator believes in good faith that the peer review committee
has incorrectly determined a nurse's duty. This subsection does
not affect the protections provided by Subsection (c)(1) or Section
301.352.
SECTION 2. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
conduct that occurs on or after the effective date of this Act.
Conduct that occurs before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the conduct occurs, and
the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
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