"As a heart transplant patient, I have spent my share of time in the hospital. Nurses and other hospital staff have been essential in my recovery. I know how hard my nurses worked and I benefited when they were able to take real breaks during their long shifts. I support HB2304 because my caregivers must be alert and focused to meet my needs. We go to the hospital to get well and count on our nurses to give us safe and quality care, but they are unfairly challenged to do that consistently if they don’t have a chance to eat or rest."

Aolani Glover

Seconds matter when you or a family member ends up in the hospital. You want to know the nurse and other healthcare workers taking care of you are alert and attentive to making the critical decisions that save your life.

But your nurse and other critical staff may have already worked 12 or more hours, without a break or food. Truck drivers and airline pilots are required to take regular breaks, so why not the nurses and other healthcare workers who make the decisions that affect your health?

Studies show that fatigue is one of the primary causes of medical errors. As our patients, you are our number one priority - we want to make decisions that keep you safe and help get you home faster.

That’s why we’re working on legislation that would require hospitals to provide meal and rest breaks to nurses and other critical staff, who need to stay focused and alert in order to make the second-to-second decisions that matter. We call these ‘Safe Breaks’ because every patient and nurse and other critical staff should be safe in our hospitals.

Unfortunately our local hospitals are opposed to this bill, claiming that nurses and healthcare workers will be forced to take a break and stop taking care of you. That’s not the case. Patients are always our number one priority, and that’s why the legislation ensures that our breaks will be interrupted when we are needed so there’s no harm to the patient.

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