[herring_RN]

We must reduce nurses' burdens, by Suzanne Gordon


It's National Nurses' Week (May 5-12), and the profession has one cause for celebration. Hospitals are safer and nurses happier both in California and in Victoria, Australia, for a simple reason: Governments there have limited the number of patients that nurses must take care of.

They enacted these measures so that patients wouldn't suffer or die from hospital cost-cutting that left too few nurses available to provide quality care.

Heavy patient loads so overburdened nurses that in 1999 and 2000, respectively, nursing unions in California and Victoria fought for and won legislation to set a ceiling on patients.

In California, that means there must now be at least one nurse for every five patients on medical/surgical floors - the biggest and busiest wards in a hospital.

Full Article: http://www.sentinelsource.com/main.asp?SectionID=43&SubSectionID=107&ArticleID=1 87374

[BBFRN]

Interesting article- thanks for posting it, Herring. Suzanne Gordon is my hero!

[Sylv]

It's probably an interesting article, but I won't by paying to read it.

[herring_RN]

Oh, it was free before going to archives.
Here are links to the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Safety-Numbers...1132226&sr=1-3

http://www.powells.com/biblio/4-9780801446832-0

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by herring_RN

We must reduce nurses' burdens, by Suzanne Gordon


It's National Nurses' Week (May 5-12), and the profession has one cause for celebration. Hospitals are safer and nurses happier both in California and in Victoria, Australia, for a simple reason: Governments there have limited the number of patients that nurses must take care of.

They enacted these measures so that patients wouldn't suffer or die from hospital cost-cutting that left too few nurses available to provide quality care.

Heavy patient loads so overburdened nurses that in 1999 and 2000, respectively, nursing unions in California and Victoria fought for and won legislation to set a ceiling on patients.

In California, that means there must now be at least one nurse for every five patients on medical/surgical floors - the biggest and busiest wards in a hospital.

Full Article: http://www.sentinelsource.com/main.a...ticleID=187374

Meanwhile, nurses are suffering in southern and midwestern states, such as mine, due to unrealistic patient/nurse ratios and pay scales nurses in California and New England would consider fit for a McDonald's worker.