The Republican, Wednesday July 13, 2005

Safe staffing ratios needed to ensure patient safety

The recent article about author Suzanne Gordon's book on the nursing shortage, combined with the three-quarter page ads running in The Republican which discredit the position of the professional nurses in Massachusetts in regard to pending legislation to ensure safe staffing ratios in hospitals, has spurred me on to inform my fellow citizens of the true situation facing nursing today.

As a registered nurse, working actively in clinical settings and in nursing education for over 40 years, I can assure you that the time has come to finally listen to the nurses, those individuals who are actually giving the care.
When the hospitals decided to restructure the way nursing care was being delivered in hospitals in the late 1980s, professional nurses were replaced in many settings by "patient assistants" in order to reduce costs. These "patient assistants" did the best they could, but lacked educational preparation and clinical expertise.

Nurses left acute care hospitals in droves, and research demonstrated over and over that lack of control over the work environment was a major factor in this exodus.

Nurses would no longer work in situations in which there were too many, very sick patients to care for. The safety of their patients was compromised by the insistence of the hospitals to care for too many critically ill patients, and nurses finally made their voices heard.

It is with certainty that I can tell you that there will be no nurse shortage if nurses are allowed to do what they are educated to do, and that is to safely and compassionately care for patients. The proposed bill supported by working nurses is House Bill 2663, An Act Ensuring Patient Safety, which includes mandatory RN-to-patient ratios. It is worthy of your support.

Patricia Triggs
Springfield

Agawam Advertiser News, Thursday, June 30, 2005

Call your state rep. to support safe-staffing bill

Dear Editor:

To all Agawam residents: An important bill is pending in the state legislature that can and will affect us all. The bill is H.2663, An Act Ensuring Safe RN to Patient Ratios. 

RNs working at the bedside, caring for your family members, friends and neighbors, want this bill to pass. The Massachusetts Hospital Association’s “Patient First” campaign has been mistaken for the safe-staffing bill. The hospital association wanted people to make that mistake. 

Many people sent their legislators the form the MHA put in newspapers and mailings, thinking they were supporting better staffing. Instead, they were supporting a “pledge” that will not put more nurses at the bedside where they are needed. It will allow hospital administrators to go on deciding what is adequate staffing when they are paid to keep operating budgets lean. Many Massachusetts hospitals are making record profits and administrators are getting big paychecks.

Hospitals have the resources to hire more nurses and studies show the nurses are out there. California passed a safe-staffing bill and it is working without overburdening hospitals. Short-staffing seems cheaper to short-sighted administrators who refuse to account for the cost of omissions and oversights made by overworked and overstressed nurses. 

Our state Rep. Daniel Keenan has not signed on in support of H. 2663. Why? Maybe he needs to hear from all his constituents who want him to support the RNs’ safe-staffing bill. His local office number is 786.4545. The Boston office is 617.722.2060. Call him today. Ask your family, friends and neighbors to call. 
I am a nurse. I’ve worked in a hospital for 28 years. I’ve seen advances in health care and streamlining of services. I’ve seen the amount of care needed per patient increase. Nurses have to keep up on new medications, new treatments and new technologies. More paperwork is added all the time. Little is done to make the job easier. New nurses have an ever-increasing amount of knowledge to absorb. Basic care is the first to go when technology is so time consuming.

The average age of Massachusetts nurses is 48. We move patients who cannot move themselves. We lift heavy equipment. We stand for long periods and we walk many miles a day as we provide needed care. We get tired and we are asked to stay overtime to cover understaffing. We worry that we have overlooked something crucial to our patients’ health and safety. We need your help! Make a phone call to Dan Keenan asking him to support H.2663 to make nursing care safer.

Thank you. Someday it may make a difference to you or a loved one.

Sue Hoague
Feeding Hills

Daily Hampshire Gazette, Thursday July 14, 2005

Take a stand for Patient Safety Act

To the editor:

As a 40-year veteran of hospital nursing, I strongly support the Massachusetts Nurses Association's safe staffing legislation, the Patient Safety Act, House Bill 2663. This is the only piece of legislation that is being presented to our state legislators that identifies nurse-to-patient ratios.
Over the last several years, studies and data have been gathered and it is well-documented that with a 1:4 nurse to patient ratio, care is safer and risk of injury is lower. Any number above 4 increases the patients’ risk of injury by 7 percent.

Nurses do not want to give less than safe and quality care to their patients. Many have left the profession because of the safety risk for the patient and their nursing license.

In a competing bill supported by the Massachusetts Hospital Association and The Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives there are no requirements for RN-to-patient ratios or any uniform standard of care. If the hospital industry bill passes, staffing levels will remain as they are now —dangerously low. Patients' satisfaction will not change, nurses' working conditions will not change and the increased risk of patient injury will remain as it is today—shamefully high.

Bound by my Massachusetts nursing license, I continue to advocate for safe and quality nursing care for my patients, my profession and the nurses of the future. Many of my nursing colleagues share the same concerns for quality and safe care and share the same passion I have for the future of nursing.
I urge everyone who supports patient safety to contact their local legislator and tell them you support House Bill 2663. Ask them to support the bill because it makes sense. This will ensure safe staffing numbers in all health care settings.

Mary C. Powers
Westhampton