One is a safe haven bill, providing parents a place to voluntarily surrender healthy newborn children instead of abandoning them. The havens in the bill are hospitals, and the bill protects hospitals and their personnel from criminal and civil liability in these cases. Select session, then legislation, then 1148, then Senate study bill. A second bill concerns a directive by the Iowa Labor Commissioner to prevent youth under age 18 from working in hospitals and nursing homes due to potential exposure to biohazards and infections. The bill, SF 170, moves to strike this restriction as it seems unreasonable.
Teens work in hospitals and nursing homes in areas relatively remote from hazardous chemicals.
Ten percent of nursing home workers are under the age of 18 and hospitals have teens of this age working in dietary departments and as unit clerks. The original directive might also affect teens volunteering in hospitals. A third and more controversial bill is House Study Bill 59. It allows registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to pronounce a patient s death in nursing homes, hospices, and hospitals. It s stimulating to have this information close at hand and see what is happening in our state.