It is not unheard of that the United States, as well as other countries, is facing a severe staffing crisis. There is a large number of public healthcare facilities experiencing an unprecedented level of abandonment by their nurses who decide to drop their profession in lieu of other, more stable job offers. The nurses who leave their positions are, arguably, not entirely to blame for their decision to abandon their trade.

It is a known fact that the conditions they usually work in are not the best. Nurses in public facilities are subjected to mandatory overtime, as well as other tasks that can take a toll on their willingness to work in nursing. Private institutions face similar problems. However, they also offer more incentives, both financial and professional, that make it, somewhat, fairer for their employees.

However, one of the most important issues, is the understaffing. Nurses that work in certain hospitals could be attending hundreds of patients at once, increasing the risk for accidents and diminishing the nurse’s quality of life in the workplace. This is not a new issue. Hospital understaffing has been a rising problem for the past decade, causing a mass exodus of nurses to abandon their trade in search of better job opportunities — or at the very least, a job that allows them to pay the bills without requiring them to sacrifice life and limb.

Nurses push for change: The Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety Act of 2018

Nurses have been pushing for legislation to improve their work conditions and address the staffing crisis currently faced by hospitals across the country. The “Safe Staffing” bill is the tool to achieve it. However, this is not the first time that a bill like this has been proposed to Congress.

The bill has gone through several iterations, all of which had been proposed in past Congresses, but all failed to pass for different reasons. The newest bill, called the Safe Staffing for Nurse and Patient Safety Act of 2018, is somewhat different than its previous iterations. It was introduced to Congress on February 15, 2018, with bipartisan support, and championed by  Reps. David Joyce (R-OH), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), as well as Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

Pamela Cipriano, Ph.D., RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, the president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), states that, “It is so important for nurses on the front lines to be able to have a say in what they believe is safe staffing. This bill benefits bedside nurses by giving them decision-making power, control, and the ability to influence the delivery of safe care.

It’s not surprise that these nurses are striving for legislation that would give them power over staffing decisions in their own workplace. Nurses are part of the first line of care for patients. They are the ones that can best assess their patients needs, and are the most qualified to assign the resources necessary to address them. Furthermore, they would be able to provide adequate care to exceptional cases by personally gauging the patient’s requirements, and delivering on their requirements. Also, several studies supported appropriate nurse staffing as it reduces patient morbidity and mortality, while ensuring nurse retention.

“With adequate amounts of staffing we see mortality go down and patient complications can be prevented or diminished,” Cipriano says. “It is important for nurses to have sufficient resources to care for patients because nurses experience moral distress when they cannot provide the care they know a patient needs.”

Low nurse retention, on the other hand, is extremely costly, especially for hospitals and public health centers that run on a strict budget. Short-changing patients can lead to nurse burnout and poor retention. In this sense, appropriate staffing can help address this problem, and improve their quality of life in the workplace by providing better services to patients which would decrease patient readmission, reduce hospital-acquired infections, medical errors, and other undesirable medical outcomes.

“Patients deserve to have the right care,” Cipriano says. “They need to be kept safe, and the best way to prevent problems and complications is to have the right nurse staffing.”

The Safe Staffing bill has already been implemented in Sacramento since this past February, with great results. If Congress passes the bill, we might see these benefits be brought to other institutions in the country.