Nurses Lobby for Safe Staffing

On April 9th, nurses from across Illinois gathered in Springfield to lobby for legislation that would improve nurse staffing at the bedside.  At a hearing held by the House Health Care Availability and Access Committee, RN2RN Network nurses provided compelling testimony regarding the need for safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in all Illinois hospitals. 

Following the hearing, nurses lobbied their legislators to sign on to a letter to the Illinois Department of Public Health, urging the department to ensure that Illinois hospitals provide accurate, detailed and comprehensive data about nurse staffing – including information about nurse staffing by clinical service area and unit. 

Nurses believe that accurate data about current nurse staffing will make it clear to lawmakers that action is needed to protect patient safety and improve working conditions for nurses.

“[Bedside nurses] have come to detest the ‘Grid’ management created, specifying the ratio of RNs and Nurse Techs allowed according to patient census.  You’re supposed to have eleven RNs and four Nurse Techs to care for 40 patients, but there are only eight RNs on the shift!  We keep losing nursing staff due to ‘burnout’ and the very real feeling that your nursing license in ‘on the line’ every shift.”
-    Judy Barlow, RN, Springfield, IL. Her full testimony can be found here.

"I’m here today to report that nurse staffing ratios have worked in California.  As legislators, your counterparts in California heard all the same horror stories from the California Hospital Association that you’ve been hearing here in Illinois.  We’ve found, however, that passing the staffing ratios legislation and implementing it did not make the hospitals go broke.  Implementing the ratios encouraged nurses to return to the bedside, which helped to alleviate the shortage at many hospitals.  In short, requiring safe staffing ratios is sound public policy.  And more importantly, it saves lives."
-    Sonia Moseley, RN, Vice President for Nursing at NUHHCE/AFSCME, retired Executive Vice President of United Nurses Associations of California.  Her full testimony can be found here.

"We believe that all Illinois hospitals need to be held accountable to basic safe nurse staffing levels.  They talk about wanting flexibility, but that’s just code for saying they want to be able to staff to the bare minimum.  What about public safety?  Think about how they staff our fire houses with firemen and paramedics.  They staff for the emergency and if there isn’t one they will have a quiet day and an opportunity to upkeep equipment and stock appropriately.  The hospital should be willing to invest in that staffing in order to be prepared. "
-    Mary Mordan, RN, Resurrection Medical Center. Her full testimony can be found here.

Also testifying was Jean Ann Seago, PhD, RN, Associate Professor, University of California, San Francisco.  She pointed out the limits of staffing by acuity and discussed her research which found that patient classification systems were not sufficient to predict staffing for the upcoming shift. Click here for her article summarizing her findings.   Dr. Seago also emphasized the importance of accurate data in developing any policies on nurse staffing, stating:  “Hospital level data, even direct care staffing data, are not specific enough for accurate estimates.  Unit level data are necessary to make decisions that are specific to different workloads.”

William McNary, Co-Director of Citizen Action/Illinois, also testified before the committee on the need for nurse-to-patient ratios in Illinois.  "Citizen Action/Illinois fully accepts the conclusions of an overwhelming number of medical researchers who assert that improved medical outcomes result with lower Patient to Nurse Ratios."  His full testimony can be found here.