The Michigan Nurses Association, the largest labor and professional organization representing registered nurses in Michigan, has recognized state Rep. Aaron Miller, of Sturgis, with its highest honor for elected officials.

The 2017 “Friend of Nursing” awards were presented on Oct. 13 at the association’s annual convention in Battle Creek.

“Only the most effective, active advocates for nurses and patients earn the prestigious Friend of Nursing award,” said MNA President John Armelagos. “The winners have taken concrete action to drive home the fact that supporting nurses and protecting hospital patients from harm are urgent, nonpartisan issues.”

In particular, the Friend of Nursing award recognizes legislators’ work on the bipartisan Safe Patient Care Act (House bills 4629 to 4630 and Senate bills 387 to 389). Together, the package aims to increase patient safety in Michigan hospitals by capping the number of patients a registered nurse can be assigned, limiting the continuous hours a nurse can be ordered to work, and requiring hospitals to disclose information about their nursing care.

All the bills are awaiting committee hearings. More information is available at MISaferhospitals.org.

“As a legislator, Rep. Miller has significantly elevated and advanced the issue of patient safety at the Capitol,” Armelagos said. “He stepped up to sponsor a bill focusing on an issue that virtually everyone can agree on ­— hospital transparency. Miller actively recruited fellow legislators to co-sponsor the bill, bringing more attention to the fact that safe patient care is not a partisan issue. We appreciate Rep Miller’s partnership and advocacy on this important issue.”

In his acceptance speech, Miller talked about coming from a family full of registered nurses — including his wife, Alexandria; his mother, Rebecca; and his brother Isaac. He said he was proud to participate in expanding the Safe Patient Care Act this year, adding a new bipartisan bill that requires Michigan hospitals to be more transparent by releasing their nursing staff data to the public (House Bill 4631).

Miller also said the evening belonged to his colleague Rep. John Kivela of Marquette, who was an active advocate for registered nurses and staunch supporter of the Safe Patient Care Act. Kivela died in May. He received a posthumous Friend of Nursing award from MNA at the event last week.

“This is bipartisan — that’s not a thing to be afraid of; it’s a thing to be proud of it,” Miller said of the Safe Patient Care Act. “John was all about bipartisanship. When his death unfortunately happened this spring, we legislators came together and we put aside the letters behind our names.

“That’s going to be John’s legacy —that we can do things in a bipartisan way,” Miller said. “Let’s make his legacy making bipartisanship cool again. Let’s make it a regular occurrence. The thing with term limits is, we cycle out, we go away. But bipartisanship doesn’t have to go away.”