The Pennsylvania Constitution keeps it simple: “The members of the General Assembly shall receive such salary and mileage for regular and special sessions as shall be fixed by law, and
WITF Registered nurse Mary Lou Arocena holds a photo of a nurse who died from COVID-19. Arocena, 60, worked as nurse for 35 years before retiring last year, facing burnout from the stress of the job
Nurses in Pennsylvania’s largest health care union say COVID-19 has shown the need for a state policy requiring a minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratio.
For several years, SEIU Health Care and some state lawmakers have made the case that staffing ratios would save lives and improve patient care in hospitals.
This year, however, nurses came to the state Capitol carrying the trauma of the pandemic, said registered nurse Mary Lou Arocena.
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A group of House lawmakers says state legislators could work across the aisle more often if a few changes are made to how business gets done around the Capitol.
The group known as the PA One Caucus, made up of eight Republicans and eight Democrats, says its been working for five months on ways to bring lawmakers closer together. Its Democratic leader, Rep. Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia), said he noticed that needed to happen almost as soon as he started working at the Capitol in 2016.
“When you’re first elected, you have orientation, like at camp or college or a new job,” Solomon said. “But the thing about orientation in this place is it’s done in a partisan way.”