We don’t have a shortage of nurses. We have a shortage of nurses willing to work in our hospitals. Spread too thin by hospital administrators, and burned out by high patient loads, nurses in Massachusetts continue to leave the bedside.

These nurses are now working in other areas of health care or in other fields entirely. Fewer than half of all nurses in Massachusetts are working at the hospital bedside. And nearly 60% of them are working only part-time.

What a waste.

To make matters worse, many hospitals have more than enough nurses on their employment rosters but under-staff as a cost-cutting measure. And you, the patient, suffer when nurses have too many patients to care for at once.

Establishing minimum nurse staffing levels will improve working conditions for nurses. As a result, fewer nurses will leave the profession. More people will want to become nurses in the future, and more will stay at the bedside.

Since the State of California passed a similar measure a few years ago, they have seen an increase of 60,000 active RN licenses! In Massachusetts 65% of RNs who left hospital nursing said they will return to bedside care if a safe limit is set on the number of patients they are assigned at one time.

Those are the facts.

Help nurses protect you and your family. Please, call 617.722.2000 and ask your legislators to support The Nurses’ Bill, House 2663.