CNA Announces its Proposed Nurse Staffing Ratios

[PeggyOhio]

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."