Nurses General Nursing
Published Apr 19, 2001
PeggyOhio
157 Posts
This was posted on the Arkansas Nurses Association website
"CNA Announces its Proposed Nurse Staffing Ratios
The California Nurses Association today announced its proposal for minimum
nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. The ratios are: Intensive Care, 1:2;
medical/surgical units, telemetry or other specialty care, 1:3; emergency
room, 1:3; burn, 1:2; step down/intermediate care, definite observation,
1:3; active labor and delivery, 1:1; obstetrics, 1:3; post-partum/normal
newborn nursery, 1:5; pediatrics, 1:3; psychiatric, 1:4; subacute and
transitional inpatient care, 1:4. The ratios are based on discharge records
of California hospital patients over the past six years by the Institute for
Health and Socio-Economic Policy and the Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG)
designations for the acuity of those patients, CNA said. CNA was the prime
mover in the 1999 California law that required minimum nurse-to-patient
ratios for the state's general acute and acute psychiatric hospitals,
scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The California Healthcare Association,
University of California Hospitals, Service Employees International Union,
and United Nurses Association of California/Union of Healthcare
Professionals also have submitted proposals for consideration by the
California Department of Health Services, which expects to release draft
regulations for public comment in early fall. For most categories, CNA
proposes more nurses per patient than does the California Healthcare Association."