We know that the topic of staffing ratios has been in the news in the U.S. We are not alone in our fight for safer staffing ratios and quality patient care. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) is also campaigning for mandated staff ratios to protect older nursing home residents stating.
In the absence of mandated ratios, dangerously low-levels of nurse and career staffing continue to put the lives of the elderly at risk.
I feel like sometimes I am on a production line, you don't get enough time to properly care for residents
There are fewer and fewer nurses to care for the increasing number of residents.
...at a time when the profits of aged care providers continue to rise... The ANMF says this shows that the system is all about "profits before people"
I'm from California and the lobby hurdle is no less at the state level. The primary lobbyists against safe minimum nurse-patient ratios (H.R. 1063/S.2392) are the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Nursing Association (ANA) and they are strong lobbyists at every level.
I have to disagree and strongly disagree.
Lets say I have an personal and intimate connection to healthcare lobbying, my mother (a nurse) may or may not be one of those strong lobbyists you speak of.
California is a massive state but lobbying on a federal level is not 1 order of magnitude different but several orders of magnitude different.
$1M can change a key election in California for an assemblywomen or assemblyman. $1M is considered the door fee at a federal level.
The complexity at the federal level is FAR higher than at the state level. Ever wonder why there is not a national nursing license? Hell, when are we going to get a national driver's license? You want to know why there is not a ratio law already? Who is going to pay for it? If the feds significantly increased Medicare reimbursement AHA would be all over it.
Don't get me wrong, I pray and hope for something to happen at the federal level but I won't be holding my breath and honestly believe it is a serious waste of resources.
If we want to make a change we should start at home where our time and money can actually make a significant impact.
There is a reason why a state passed a staffing ratio law many years ago. Lobby hurdle is far, far lower.
Silly to think a state of 40M people would politically be on parity with a country of 325M over 50 states and 6 territories.
I'm sorry but from where I am, California, overall, doesn't really seem a good place to be now. There are slums everywhere and it is way too easy to become homeless...
Does Australia have universal health care? (I would think that would affect the profit motive to some degree, if profit seeking is what is keeping staffing too low...)
Not profit driven but resources driven. Australia is a small country (by population) and most of their staffing issues center around long term care.
They are about to start a pay for performance program this summer similar to what we have in the U.S. where there will be financial penalties attached to HAIs, this may play a role in staffing concerns.
Living in a right to work state without a ballot initiative process I will never see ratios except that they be imposed by a federal entity. CMS guidelines mandating staffing by acuity? That's the ticket.
I currently work in Australia and the staffing levels, especially at night, are unreal. I have had 11 patients to myself on an acute ward (in a hospital, not a subacute facility!) in a night shift with at least 3 of them on telemetry and another 3 confused and jumping out f bed every 5 minutes. If one deteriorates, thats it.
Staffing ratios in Australia (at least, where I have worked) are a joke. A very sad, depressing joke.
tell me about it.... in Italy i worked in a ward with up to 33 patients and two nurses, in the night shift, many of them on telemetry and with various heart conditions.
Within the next ten years the baby boomers in the Good Ole USA will be entering the LTC system. Our healthcare system is already overburdened with patient /nurse ratios at an untenable and unsafe level for many hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. Who is to blame for this? Nursing was once a humanitarian vocation. Now profit minded facilities have perverted healthcare into a money making industry. When you approach a manager over the unsafe nurse /patient ratios they produce a grid for your review. How sickeningly convenient: we have converted human life to a set of numbers. Floor nursing has become a question of how much stress and liability you can tolerate working under. Many nurses are fleeing the bedside. I'm sorry to say but in some ways we have only ourselves to blame for this. We have been scared , silent , and servile for to long. What can we do?
We have to stand up and be counted. Stand up for the safety of your patients. Stand up for each other as healthcare professionals. Unite as one body and speak in one voice. Nurse Beth has my vote for president of a Nurses Coalition that will advocate for Nurses. We are 3 million strong!! We can push our state legislators for changes; or not, we can continue to be scared , silent, and servile, ( and the money changers will love us for it).
The power of the pen is great indeed. Write ,e-mail or call your state legislators and DEMAND CHANGE!! Stay strong in solidarity.
So this people who are not in favor of nurse patient ratio is just primarily longing for profit not for better nursing care. It's been well researched and documented since time immemorial that quality of care is based on how many patients can a nurse handle at a given time.
Flatline, BSN, RN
375 Posts
I have to disagree and strongly disagree.
Lets say I have an personal and intimate connection to healthcare lobbying, my mother (a nurse) may or may not be one of those strong lobbyists you speak of.
California is a massive state but lobbying on a federal level is not 1 order of magnitude different but several orders of magnitude different.
$1M can change a key election in California for an assemblywomen or assemblyman. $1M is considered the door fee at a federal level.
The complexity at the federal level is FAR higher than at the state level. Ever wonder why there is not a national nursing license? Hell, when are we going to get a national driver's license? You want to know why there is not a ratio law already? Who is going to pay for it? If the feds significantly increased Medicare reimbursement AHA would be all over it.
Don't get me wrong, I pray and hope for something to happen at the federal level but I won't be holding my breath and honestly believe it is a serious waste of resources.
If we want to make a change we should start at home where our time and money can actually make a significant impact.
There is a reason why a state passed a staffing ratio law many years ago. Lobby hurdle is far, far lower.
Silly to think a state of 40M people would politically be on parity with a country of 325M over 50 states and 6 territories.