Safe Staffing for All

As health care professionals in California, we've seen what an important difference safe-staffing ratios have made for our patients and our work lives. We know that safe staffing improves outcomes for patients and helps us do our jobs better, reducing burnout and turnover. Isn't it time that patients all over the country benefited from this common-sense reform? Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois is championing a bill in the U.S. Congress, H.R. 2123, to set federally mandated nurse-to-patient ratios. Take a few moments to urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 2123. For more information check out the website of RNs Working Together, the coalition of AFL-CIO union nurses from 10 affiliates, at www.rnsworkingtogether.org .

Feel free to customize your letter, sharing your experience with the way safe staffing ratios in California have helped you and your patients.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Ensure Safe Staffing for Quality Care

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am a health care professional in California and a member of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, AFSCME. My colleagues, patients and I have benefited from state-mandated safe-staffing ratios, and now it's time to spread those benefits to the rest of the county. I urge you to co-sponsor the Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (H.R. 2123) introduced by Representative Jan Schakowsky. This legislation will improve the quality of patient care and help address the nurse shortage by establishing federally mandated minimum safe registered nurse-to-patient ratios.

Research by the Joint Commission and the Institute of Medicine shows that too few nurses are caring for too many patients in hospitals around the country. This leads to medical errors, causing preventable patient deaths and injuries. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have found that when a hospital decreases a registered nurse's patient load from eight patients to four, the risk that a surgical patient will die within a 30-day period is lowered by 31 percent.

In addition to saving patients, H.R. 2123 is one of the answers to the nursing shortage. A key reason that nurses leave the profession is the daily reality of chronic understaffing and unmanageable workloads. Under these circumstances, nurses worry they cannot provide quality care to their patients. One study found that one in five nurses is planning to leave the profession within a few years.

Mandating specific ratios between nurses and patients is the most reliable and cost-effective way to ensure high-quality care, protect both patients and staff, and decrease preventable hospital deaths. The affiliates of RNs Working Together, a coalition of ten AFL-CIO unions representing over 200,000 registered nurses, are endorsing H.R. 2123. Please become a co-sponsor to ensure that nurses are able to deliver safe, quality care to your community and constituents.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
January 04, 2009

Background Information

Providing enough nurses at the bedside is the most reliable and cost-effective way to ensure high-quality care, protecting both patients and staff and decreasing preventable hospital deaths.

Research by the Joint Commission and the Institute of Medicine shows that too few nurses are caring for too many patients in hospitals around the country. This leads to medical errors causing preventable patient deaths and injuries.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have found that when a hospital decreases a registered nurse's patient load from eight patients to four, the risk that a surgical patient will die within a 30-day period is lowered by 31 percent.
Despite these findings, on average, medical /surgical nurses are responsible for delivering care to eight patients at a time and are working excessively long hours that jeopardize patient care.

Ensuring that there are enough nurses at the bedside is one of the answers to the current nurse shortage crisis.

A key reason that nurses leave the profession is the daily reality of chronic understaffing and unmanageable workloads.
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that each additional patient per nurse (above 4) is associated with a 23 percent increase in the odds of nurse burnout and a 15 percent increase in the odds of job dissatisfaction.
In a national survey of nurses, 83 percent said that improving staffing ratios would be "very effective" in improving job satisfaction, recruiting and retaining quality nurses.

The Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (H.R. 2123) would:

Require federally funded hospitals to meet minimum safe direct-care registered nurse-to-patient ratios in each unit, during each shift.
Require staffing plans to be developed with the involvement of registered nurses or their representatives.
Require use of an acuity system to determine staffing levels above the established minimum.
Require a study that would establish LPN/LVN staffing requirements.
Establish whistleblower protections, including the right for a nurse to refuse an assignment if it violates the Act.
Require hospitals to post the established ratios for each unit.
Include corrective action, including civil monetary penalties and loss of federal funds to hospitals that fail to meet requirements of this Act.
Provide for additional Medicare reimbursement related to costs in meeting new nurse staffing levels.