Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act (1132)

Primarily, it is crucial for health care organizations to focus on ensuring safe and quality patient care, as well as improved job satisfaction by enforcing an optimal and adequate nurse-to-patient ratio and creating innovative and long-term strategies through a collaborative effort. In order to ensure the safety of patients and nurses, state-mandated safe-staffing ratios are necessary. Adequate nurse staffing is key to patient care and nurse retention, while inadequate staffing puts patients at risk and drives nurses from their profession. As baby boomers age and the demand for health care services grows, staffing problems will only intensify. Consequently, safe-staffing ratios have become such an ever-pressing concern. In 2004, California became the first state to implement minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, designed to improve patient care and nurse retention. Subsequent studies show that California’s program measurably improved patient care and nurse retention.

H.R. 5052- Safe Staffing for Nursing and Patient Safety act of 2018 was introduced by Ohio representative David Joyce. House bill 5052 is critical to both nurse and patient safety. Proper patient to nurse ratio decreases the incidence of medical error, retention of staff and the accountability of a hospital wide staffing plan for nursing services. Mandated nurse staffing committees, Input from RN’s who provide direct care, a long side accountability of Medicare participating hospitals through evaluation and data collection in my opinion, is why Bill 5052 must pass.

Pamela F. Cipriano, President of American Nurses Association was in disbelief to see how she has tried to enforce the Nightingale pledge of keeping patients free from harm was failed because medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. As of now ANA has conducted yearlong campaign named “Safety 360 It Starts with You” in order to reduce and take measurable advances to protect the welfare of nurses and workers. It is one of campaign that the ANA comes with that is in support to both the nurses and patients. However, in the real-world nurses are stress and fatigue due to patient ratio. In my workplace, which is a state hospital, they have full time nurses on call where nurses work more than 70 hours a week. The nurses

I am writing to you in regard to safe patient ratio bill titled Safe Nurse Staffing for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act. My name is Angelina David and I am a registered nurse and practicing in the surgical intensive care unit. I am also enrolled in the Adult nurse practitioner program to further advance my knowledge in nursing. One thing I have learned is that as nurses no matter what the level of care or which facility you are practicing; patients’ safety is our number one priority. Patients’ safety and their quality of care have improved over the year. However, oftentimes nurses are still placed into a situation where it is unsafe to practice because they are required to care for more patients than it is safe.

I found your paper informative since it is the topic of my health policy paper for this course. I know all too well how it is to work in unsafe staffing environments. Doing some research I came across an association that is working toward establishing safe staffing laws. The National Nurses United (2015), the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in U.S. history, has a nationwide campaign in support of safe staffing for RNs and patients. They currently have two national safe patient ratio bills including one in Senate (S. 864) and one in the House (HR 1602).

The American Nurses Association supports a legislative model in which nurses are encouraged to create staffing plans specific to each unit. This approach will aide in establishing staffing levels that are flexible and can be changed based on the patients needs, number of admissions to the unit, discharges and transfers during each shift (“Nurse staffing plans,” 2013). This model will assist in keeping the unit staffed appropriately and organized in need of a change during each shift. Without an organized plan like this, a nurse may be required to take on a new admission and already have too big of a workload.

Nursing is the powerhouse in the delivery of safe, quality patient-centered care in the healthcare industry. To ensure continued safety of the patient and nursing staff, the issue of inadequate staffing must be addressed. Consequently, patient’s mortality rate has been linked to the level of nursing staff utilized in ensuring an utmost outcome (Aiken, 2011). This paper will outline the issue associated with inadequate nurse to patient staffing ratios in the hospital setting; essential factors such as economic, social, ethical and political and legal affecting the issue will be established; current legislature and stakeholders will be ascertained and policy option, evaluation of bill and the results of analysis will be reviewed.

Currently, there are only 13 states that have addressed these laws and regulations in hospitals: CA, CT, IL, MN, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OR, RI, TX, VT, and WA. California is the only state that requires specific minimum nurse-patient ratio in all units. Supporters for this law argue that it is important to for all states to adapt to these laws and regulations because it can improve quality patient care. Although there are several issues surrounding the idea of mandating nurse-patient ratios, the “American Nurse Association (ANA) endorses staffing systems with requirements that RNs who provide direct patient care have input into staffing decisions and that the level and intensity of care can be reflect in the staffing system” (Manjlovich, 2009).

According to the study titled Safety in Numbers (Aiken, 2010), California nurses expressed increased satisfaction with their workload after implementation of Assembly Bill 394. Mandated staffing levels is strongly linked to positive workforce environments among RNs. Safe staffing also impacts the retention of experienced RNs. Nurses with more tenure in the workforce are more experienced and better prepared to provide care to critically ill patients. Encouraging nurses to stay within the profession by mandating ratios improves job satisfaction, staff morale, and has proven to save the lives of patients by decreasing patient mortality. Adequate staffing has given RNs more time for patient teaching,

The Ohio house bill 346 also protects nurses by providing laws on staffing. HB 346 “requires hospitals to establish staffing plans, with meaningful input from direct patient care nurses, which are consistent with the principles of safe staffing developed by the American Nurses Association and other nationally recognized organizations” (Ohio Nurses Association, 2011). The American Nurses Association as well as other nursing organizations should continue to advocate for nurses to work towards decreasing nursing workload and preventing burnout.

The Registered Nurse (RN) Safe Staffing Act, H.R. 2083 was first introduced on April 29, 2015; where it was read twice and referred to the to the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Ways on April 29, 2015; and subsequently to the Subcommittee on Health on May 1st, 2015. This bill was introduced by Representative Lois Capps and has thirty-six cosponsors, from twenty states. The legislation makes amendments to title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require each Medicare-participating hospital to institute a committee composed of at least fifty-five percent nurses providing direct care, to establish nurse staffing plans that are specific to each unit (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2015).

Mandating safe staffing levels for registered nurses in acute care settings has been an important topic of discussion for many years. As the demand for registered nurses continues to rise, so does the clinical demands on the nurses currently working. If there are no specific policies in place that mandate safe and appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios for all acute care facilities, registered nurses (RNs) may be required to take on even more patients than the already high numbers currently given to many of them. Inadequate RN staffing has the potential to cause increases in adverse patient events (American Nurses Association (ANA), The registered nurse safe staffing act, 2015) as well as an increase in nurse injury (Musick, Trotto, & Morrison,

Thank you for addressing nursing staffing ratio’s. It is very interesting to me how nursing is the most respected profession, rated in the top 10 professions, and yet there is constant talk about “a nursing shortage”. Constringent nursing staffing support for patient care is not recognized or addressed enough! Ultimately, jeopardizing patient care for what price?

I am currently a student University of Maryland - SSW. I am a field CAN-Medtech employee which requires me to work at many different hospitals, Nursing homes, and rehabilitation center in the DMV area. The more time I spend in working in hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers I notice that they are always understaff. That also allows me to witness the effects of burn out and understaffing on the nursing staffs. Too many times have I seen overworked nurses struggle to make it through their shifts with too many patients to care for and not many employees on the shift to help. Giving nurses these heavy workload leads to burned out nurses, medication errors, proscriptions mix-ups and higher incidences of infection. It is because of these facts that I urge you to support the Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (H.R. 1907).

Staffing deficits pose a direct threat of manifesting negative outcomes associated with the delivery of patient care. Anything or anyone that compromises patient care should be eradicated immediately. This author believes that staffing deficits remain a consistent issue due to lack of solutions that actively address the issue. This author believes that inadequate staffing is a major concern due to the degree of harm it can impose on patients. Adverse events associated with