Ohio Nurse Staffing Laws - Need Help!!!

[Ginger35]

Hi,

I am doing a paper related to managerial nursing. Anyways, I am trying to find anything that relates nurse to patient ratios here in Ohio - especially in a critical care area. Of course I understand why - but I just need to find what is on the law books now.

Can anyone direct me where to go. I have been to the Ohio Board of Nursing website - but can not glean anything from it......

Frustrated with paper writing!!!

Thanks in advance for any help you all have to offer.

Sy,

Ginger

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Hello, Ginger,

You might check with the ONA:

http://www.ohnurses.org/index.cfm

Also, from the ONA:

Ohio Nurses Association members are also concerned about staffing levels in their own state, but the association’s efforts have been geared toward legislation establishing nurse staffing levels based on patient acuity.

Peggy Maguire, RN, JD, governmental affairs specialist for ONA, said she’s not opposed to staffing by ratios, but she doesn’t think ratios are the solution for the nursing shortage in Ohio.

Their bill, House Bill 78, is in active hearing in state governmental committee now. It deals with staffing levels, but it also deals with mandatory overtime. According to Maguire, the two issues may be divided, with the mandatory overtime component more likely to move ahead first.

“Our legislature grasps that this is a safety issue for patients, and they just don’t quite get it yet with staffing,” Maguire said. “They’re having trouble letting go of the business decision aspect of it.”

“We [have] just a conservative bunch of legislators here, and ratios sound too much like a mandate that [takes] the decision out the facility’s business decision-making hands,” she added.

http://www.nursezone.com/student_nurse_center/default.asp?articleID=8476