Political Platform

Illinois Nurses Association 2023-2024 Legislative Platform

The Illinois Nurses Association believes in and advocates for: 

• Healthcare as a human right that is accessible, equitable, and affordable for all;
• The protection of employment, fair wages, pension benefits and healthcare for all workers in the State of Illinois;
• The enactment of safe staffing minimums that will ensure safe and adequate staffing for healthcare workers;
• Widely available mental health services for all age groups, including the restoration of funding for publicly operated mental health facilities; 
• The right of all people to make their own healthcare decisions;
• The availability of prescribed therapies and medications, without interference or denial from the pharmaceutical industry and/or insurance industry;
• The end to the privatization of healthcare services provided by the City of Chicago and throughout the state;
• Accessible and widely available gender affirming care throughout the State of Illinois; 
• Legislation that assures the role of the nurse is adequately described and protected in any disaster and/or pandemic planning proposal;
• Legislation that restores and strengthens the statewide public health infrastructure;
• Improvements to standards around protecting the environment and public health related to environmental factors;
• Legislation that advocates for the strengthening of the statewide health and municipal infrastructure;
• Maintaining the unique role of the Registered Nurse (RN) within our healthcare system;
• Legislation that allows the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) to practice to the full scope of their education and training;
• Elimination of racial biases and disparities in healthcare coverage based on race;
• Safe work environment for all healthcare workers, and support measures that create a work environment where nurses and healthcare workers are respected, valued, and included as decision makers in the healthcare delivery system;
• Efforts to protect and expand workers’ rights.

Other Bill Positions and Fact Sheets

• Support HB 3338/SB2314, Safe Patient Limits Act
  • The INA is undertaking a major fight in Springfield by pushing for safe patient-to-nurse ratios. As a way to improve quality of care and working conditions for nurses, the INA introduced the Safe Patients Limit Act, which will save lives by designating limits on how many patients can be assigned to a registered nurse in acute care settings. Under current law in Illinois, there is no limit on how many patients an RN is responsible for.
  • The Act applies to any acute care unit in any healthcare facility and requires healthcare facilities to meet the safe patient limits without diminishing other healthcare staff.
  • The Act also enacts fines for facilities that violate the safe patient limits, strongly deterring the attempt to save money by skirting the limits.
  • The Act requires that all registered nurses be trained, oriented, and meet competency requirements in a particular clinical setting in order to provide care in that setting.
  • The Act would not interfere with the ability of hospitals to maintain an acuity system to determine staffing levels based on acuity, so long as the specific safe patient limits in the Act are met.