In 1999, Gray Davis signed a law mandating a statewide ratio of one nurse to five patients in surgical wards, one to six in psychiatric wards, one to four in pediatric wards, one to three in maternity wards, and one to two in intensive care. The law was strong-armed to enactment by the California Nurses Association, an activist union with national ambitions. Today, the union wants Congress to make this a federal diktat, and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer now carries the union's water on Capitol Hill.
