Develop a relationship with your legislators

Hello,

I'm still a nursing student and I'm so focused on learning the aspects of medical knowledge, that I haven't had the opportunity to look at all of the issues that surround working nurses. I registered on this site so I could view some of these things and I found this post about S 1357 and HR 2581 bills. I looked into the bills to see that they were about and why a nurse should be supporting them.

After I reviewed the bill I understand that it's a staffing requirement that hospitals must maintain as a standard, with rural areas getting a couple more years to meet this requirement. I haven't been a working nurse yet so I was curious - how bad have the hospitals been at under staffing? I know that under staffing in companies that aren't health care related happens all of the time, but usually there's no safety issues there. I hope that the bills pass because I think it's important for nurses to be able to give patients the proper care and to prevent personal burnout. I wouldn't want my relative to enter a hospital in critical care with a staff of nurses working at the edges. That's not safe and totally unfair to the nurses on staff.

I reviewed the penalties for violations and the fact that whistle blowers won't be punished. In the real world does this really ring true? Do the people that stand up and make mention of the violations really remain on staff and are able to work normally with everyone? I feel that it's difficult to avoid some repercussions even if it's not outright at that moment. Have any of you experienced fallout from standing up about something like this? I really like the idea of having a maximum allowed patient level so service is proper as I enter the workforce. If anyone has personal experience they'd like to share I'd like to hear it.

Thanks,

Maria