[littleRNthatcould]

Has anyone ever reported their employer for unsafe staffing issues?
I've read numerous threads about unsafe staffing on this site and other nurses taking the issue to the administration with nothing being done to correct it.

Last night I was reading an article on the ANA website about "being vigilant in reporting unsafe staffing". (If I can figure out the link, I will). It had a hyperlink to the JCAHO website and a hotline number.

Now, JCAHO has no actual "Safe nurse to patient ratio" number in effect. But one would imagine that some of the numbers I have seen on this board (LTC- 60:1, MS 9:1 etc..) plus what I have seen in my own practice (ER 45:3) would be considered vastly unsafe and jeapordizing patient care.
My question is, has anyone ever reported to JCAHO, and if so, what were the results?

Thanks in advance for all replies

[RN1989]

I have reported several employers for everything from unsafe staffing, orders for me violate different state/fed laws, violations of the nurse practice and medical practice acts, to fraud.

Requires good documentation for even an investigation to be done.

Had one investigator tell me that it was going to be a snap and what they had found was pretty bad - like I had told them. In the end the peer review board found that the employer and doc hadn't done anything wrong.

Still doesn't deter me from reporting. At this point in my life, I am willing to face blacklisting and termination to stand up for what is right.

[littleRNthatcould]

RN1989, I applaud your efforts.

The staffing issue, I don't believe would take a lot of documentation. Just comparing the patient census with the nurse availablilty (consistently) should be enough, shouldn't it?

[RN1989]

Originally Posted by littleRNthatcould

RN1989, I applaud your efforts.

The staffing issue, I don't believe would take a lot of documentation. Just comparing the patient census with the nurse availablilty (consistently) should be enough, shouldn't it?

Unless you are in a state that has mandated ratios, any facility can make up what they think is an appropriate staffing grid. And they can defend it like you wouldn't believe.

You have to have documentation on how the poor staffing has effected patient care. Errors, near misses, sentinel events, failure to rescue and need to call codes/rapid response team frequently, etc. Unless you have an obviously horrible staffing grid like 20 medsurg patients and only one nurse on the floor, the staffing grid and assignments won't show why it is a problem.

What is bad is when you are killing yourself every day you are at work but the staff has gotten so good at preventing errors even in a bad environment, that you don't have anything to show someone on the outside. I think that is a case in a lot of places. The staff has just gotten good at working in bad situations and this allows the facility to hide how bad things are.

[jolleygirl]

I worked in a nursing home at one time, a cna called state on 11-7 shift because we were low on staff, and they did come in and said if you think we are going to tell you that your understaffed your wrong. Even though we were short staffed, the staffing did meet state guidelines. It is the nurse/pt ratio but I don't think its always right.