(APR 17, 2014). Massachusetts nurses are gearing up for a fight—one that nurses across the country have been fighting for decades. Only this time, failure to pay heed to nurses’ concerns about staffing ratios could take the issue out of the hands of legislators and place it before voters. The issue of inadequate staffing ratios is one familiar across the country—too few nurses caring for too many patients. Stretched too thin, nurses are being put in a position that’s not good for them or their patients, according to advocates for mandated staffing ratio limits. The Massachusetts’ Patient Safety Act, currently under consideration by state lawmakers, would require the Department of Public Health to set a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio. It would also ban mandatory overtime and provide initiatives to increase nursing faculty and nurse recruitment efforts. Despite passage in both 2006 and 2008 by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the state Senate has yet to pass the measure.
To circumvent another failure, The Massachusetts Nursing Association (MNA), a labor organization, delivered 114,000 signatures to place the issue before voters. Roughly 69,000 signatures are required for a ballot initiative in Massachusetts, and nearly 91,000 of the signatures collected by MNA were verified.If lawmakers refuse to act on the issue now, MNA has until July to collected another 11,500 or so signatures to have the measure placed on the November 2014 ballot, where it would need just 30% of the vote to be enacted. California was the first state to implement mandated staffing ratios back in 2004—after a 13-year battle to passage and five years after it was signed into law. California now requires mandated minimum nurse-to-patient ratios of 1:2 in intensive care units, 1:1 in operating rooms, 1:4 in pediatrics, 1:4 in emergency departments, 1:4 in telemetry and 1:5 in medical/surgical units. Adjustments to these ratios—state minimums—are made by individual units based on need and patient acuity. The law also restricts unsafe “floating” practices and regulates the use of unlicensed staff of LVNS in place of RNs.
The number of RNs in California has increased by more than 130,000, and the bill is credited with helping to close the nursing shortage, NNU reports. Several studies have also pointed toward higher staffing levels, reduced workload, less nurse burnout with higher job satisfaction, and fewer patient deaths in California since minimum ratios were put in place. Washington D.C. lawmakers also considered legislation that would have mandated staffing ratios earlier this year, but withdrew the bill in March. Supporter’s of the bill cited a 2012 National Nurses United (NNU) study in which 57% of nurses felt staffing was always or often inadequate and 60% believed changes in their workload had resulted in negative outcomes for their patients. Nearly 90% of the nurses polled supported mandatory RN-to-patient ratios, according to the report. Other states working toward mandated state nurse-to-patient ratios include Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas. ...
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Posted By: Jen Fad
Saturday, April 19th 2014 at 7:50PM
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