UNSAFE healthcare

CherryAmes7 · Apr 5, 2000

Thank you, thank you, thank you for starting this petition. Let's make a stand and try to change what has become a tragic and wretched situation: the gross understaffing that is occurring in hospitals today.

Anonymous Registered Nurs · Apr 11, 2000

I am curious as to why only one person has replied to this post. From what I have read on this site and elsewhere, staffing is a real patient safety concern.

Is this the nurses eating their own thing, are people afraid for their jobs, or is it that nurses can never get together on anything?

Did I word the petition wrong? Only 30 people have signed the petition? I have posted info on this on multiple websites and forums. I have e-mailed all the nursing and patient advocacy sites that I could find.

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?

Just trying to make life better not only for us but for our patients.

Thanks to anyone who replies!!!

Genista, BSN, RN · Apr 12, 2000

Important topic! I would be more inclined to sign the petition if I could do so w/o my name & home state being broadcast online. Thanks for starting the dialog.

Anonymous Registered Nurs · Apr 13, 2000

Originally posted by kona2:
Important topic! I would be more inclined to sign the petition if I could do so w/o my name & home state being broadcast online. Thanks for starting the dialog.

I completely understand and respect your reasons. Thank you very much for responding.

mirn · Apr 13, 2000

Hi...signed the petition...hope others do the same. All we have is each other, let's stick together!

emhkirkpatrick · Apr 14, 2000

Having recently lost my job because i asked to many questions about this very issue and was getting info from professional organizations about standards of care and distributing it to my coworkers I was more than happy to sign this petition and pass it on to my friends on line including physcians. Keep up the good work.

But i do think that some people do not want to put their personal information on this petition and may be part of the reason yu have not gotten a lot of signatures.

Also so many of us nurses have gotten used to working like this and being incredibly busy that when we have proper staffing we fell like we are overstaffed.

egmillard · Apr 14, 2000

I would love to sign the petition, however I do not want to give out personal details. If job security is so fragile, I don't want to jeapordise employment. We all have to work, is there anyway we can sign anonymously......

Originally posted by Anonymous Registered Nurs:
Hi,

I have started a PETITION that I hope will help in changing healthcare delivery. If you sign my petition PLEASE REPLY to this post so that it will stay near the top and people will read it and maybe also sign the petition.

I live in a right to work state, so can be fired without cause. Needless to say, I have not included my name and my state is erroneous. I hope that I can help insure better care, if only just a little.

Any help in promoting this would be most appreciated, as well as anyone or any organization that you could PASS IT ON to.

The petition reads:

UNSAFE Healthcare

Our Nations hospitals and Extended Care facilities are being understaffed. Critical care nurses are now taking care of 3-4 patients instead of 1-2. Transitional care/Stepdown care nurses are now caring for 5-6 patients instead of 3-4 patients. Medical/surgical nurses are now taking care of 10-12 patients instead of 5-6 patients, and Extended care facility nurses are now taking care of 30-50 patients at the same time. Many of the Nurses are being mandated to work overtime. Sometimes 16 hour shifts and up to 60 hours per week without lunches or breaks, as there is no one to care for their patients while they are away. Unlicensed, uneducated workers are being trained in 6 weeks or less to take care of patients. We must MANDATE the facility administrators to provide safe Licensed Nurse to patient ratios in health care facilities. Mistakes are being made, lives are being lost, all in the name of making money.

Click here to sign this petition: http://www.e-thepeople.com/affiliates/national/index.cfm?PC=PETFV1&PETID=360310

[This message has been edited by Anonymous Registered Nurs (edited April 11, 2000).]

JodieRN · Apr 15, 2000

I have no quams about signing the petition. The hospital I work for has once again hascut staffing, they don't seem to care as much about the patient's as they do $$$$!!! Of course that is not what their public realations ads state. It's not just patient safety that concerns me with the decreased staffing but the safety of the employees. Injuries have increased over the last year since the "staffing matrix" was revised. I myself am among the growing number of injured workers. And now they are cutting staffing once again! But you have to keep in mind...even though it is a non-profit organization (the hospital I work for), the buck still has to stop somewhere!!! They just filter the money into projects like a new physicians office building, the retirement community, etc instead of providing adequate staffing to provide the care our patients deserve while also providing a safe working environment for the staff!!! Something has to be done for the patients, and for the staff! I am facing shoulder surgery, which anyone who has worked orthopedics or knows anyone who has had this procedure done knows is not a pleasant experience...and I still may not be able to return to my job! But then again, that does not matter because when they wear my body out, they can just bring someone new in and work on ruining their chance at ever working in acute care again as well. Well, guess I've said more than enough...Hope the petition gets someones attention and Thanks for letting me vent!!!

Kim-rn · Apr 16, 2000

As a nursing student, I am very concerned about understaffing, and what I may find when I get my first job. I have a year and a half left in school, and I would love to see this problem resolved before I'm out there! I signed the petition.

leslie :-D · Apr 20, 2000

I signed this petition w/o hesitation! Healthcare today is horrifically dangerous and yes, cost conservation has to be a consideration secondary to Medicare cuts and HMOs' 'salary incentives' to keep patients out of hospitals and SNF's. I find it dis-graceful and get so frustrated when I cannot deliver the standards of care that I feel so profoundly as a nurse. But I do prioritize and will give that extra sick pt. the 1:1 and will take the warnings and reprimands because my documentation is lagging... not habitually, but as needed. As long as I am an R.N., my patients will always come first... even if it ever costs me my job.

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cobie · Apr 21, 2000

I am signed up and I agree with what it said. It is time that we made a change, nursing cannot keep going in this same direction-all will suffer. We make up the most staff at hospitals yet we are the least heard. Nurses need to band together and what a force we could become! It is scary putting your personal information out there but anyone that has ever made a difference in the world took a risk of some kind. It is time for nurses to take a risk and speak out for themselves and their patients!