Finishing my Bachelor's

U.S.A. New York

Published

  1. Do mandatory staff/patient ratios help nursing or hurt it?

    • 4
      Help assure adequate staff
    • 3
      Assure higher quality of care
    • 0
      Costs more than it is worth
    • 1
      Removes nurses autonomy to determine numbers by acuity

8 members have participated

Specializes in Med/Surg/Hospice/Ger/IC/UR.

Good Afternoon All!!!!

I am an RN in upstate New York, and have been for thirteen years. Last year lost my sanity and decided to go back for my Bachelor's degree, which I am now finishing up (seven more classes!). Wonderful Modular RN program through Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester. I would like to ask the visitors of this site, what are the cons against mandatory staff/patient ratio, like the legislation passed in California? Are there any....or is it Utopia??????

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Do you really think there are any cons? I don't. I have been a M/S nurse for a few years now, I have had as many as ten pts on one shift. It was absolutely crazy- I now work mental health because of the associated chaos; and people think their nuts!!

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Specializes in ICU/CCU (PCCN); Heme/Onc/BMT.

I'm wracking my brains trying to come up with some cons to mandatory staff/patient ratio. The only con I can think of is if the ratio is too high.

Let us know how your research comes out! :)

Ted

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Specializes in ICU.

I can't think of one single reason either.

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.

Okay...upward and onward to open a can of worms.....provoke some thought.......stir up some action:

Who is determining these mandatory nurse/patient ratios???? If it is management that is making these numbers up...what guarantee do we as nurses have that they will choose appropriate numbers for us??? What is they decide that they will make dangerous decisions like 12-15 pt for 1 nurse on night shift? (Don't say it doesn't happen because it does...been there and done that and it is the most horrific sensation in the world) Or do we have a governing body of nurses up in Albany making up numbers based on input from nurses directly in the trenches....because if that were the case then i would say that mandatory nurse/patient ratios are a good thing, ensuring adequet staffing and a higher quality of care.....but if these numbers are getting pulled out of a hat by some schmoe that hasn't a clue of what is happening out there then I say don't take the power out of the hands of the nurses who can base the need on the acuity of the patients in his/her care.

Any input, thoughts or facts on this??

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hmm... here in Staten Island, over at SIUH, Nysna worked in the ratios into the new RN contract.... also added a no manditory OT clause as well....

The LPN's still (as of 8 mos ago) were still subject to mandation though... but, the staffing protocol was pretty much adhered to...

==Barbara

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In our NYSNA contracts, THE NURSES who work on each unit in each facility determine the staffing ratios their unit needs for their specific pt population - floor by floor - shift by shift. At my hospital, our RN contract also includes the number of CNAs & LPNs (if any) that each shift on each unit must have per RN.

In Albany, NYSNA has introduced the RN Safe Staffing Act - legislation that sets minimum staffing ratios, determined by NYSNA & its members - working staff RNs. The ratios are the minimum numbers that the facility would be allowed to staff with and are intended & expected to be upwardly adjustable for higher acuities.

NYSNA's Proposed SAFE RN STAFFING RATIOS:

Critical Care 1:1

Emergency Dept./trauma patients 1:1

Emergency Dept./non-critical care 1:3 (Triage must be done by an RN, but that nurse and any supervising nurse would not be included in the ratio, even if they provide direct patient care)

Perioperative Care 1:1

(in the operating room [not including RNs serving as circulating nurses or first assistants])

Post-anesthesia 1:2

L&D in second or third stages of labor 1:1

L&D First stage of labor 1:2

Newborns/intermediate care nursery 1:3

Non-critical antepartum patients 1:4

Postpartum mother/baby couplets 1:3

Postpartum or well-baby care 1:6

Med/surg--telemetry patients 1:3

Med/surg--step-down units 1:3

General med/surg--incl. pediatrics 1:4

Behavioral health 1:4

Rehabilitation care 1:5

For more about this new legislation, see:

http://www.nysna.org/publications/report/2003/may/legislation.htm

It would help if all NY nurses contacted their state respresentatives in Albany & pressured them to pass the RN SAFE STAFFING ACT legislation as soon as possible.

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.

-jt,

Thanks for the info. It is good to know these things (especially as I work in a non union facility and am considering going back to a facility that has one). However, having had a very bad experience with NYSNA, I am sceptical of anything that they back.....the proof is in the pudding so to speak. But as long as they ensure that the power is still in the hands of those that are in the trenches and know what happens...then I think mandatory staffing ratios are a good thing.

Barb,

I think that these staffing ratios should also be upheld for the LPNs as well......You guys always seem to get crapped on wherever you all are......They forget that you guys are nurses too!

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