Sine California passed the law that mandated a safe staffing act; there have been seven other states that adopted laws in regard to staffing for nurses. These states include Oregon, Washington, Ohio Illinois, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Texas. The difference between the other seven states and California, however, is that California has a fixed nursing-to-patient ratio. Majority of the other states tend to model the American Nurses Association Safe Staffing Principles model, which only requires that hospitals have staffing committees, consisting of 50-55% nurses who will develop staffing guidelines that cater to the specific hospital’s needs. Oregon requires hospitals develop hospital-wide nurse staffing plans with input from direct care nurses.
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staffing plans. Labor unions such as the National Nurses United Association (2015) have a nationwide campaign that supports safe staffing for RNs and patients. They have two bills that are currently in the senate and in the House of Representatives. The National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Act (2015) and the Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (2015) both aim to establish direct care registered nurse-to-patient ratios requirements in hospitals. Unlike professional organizations like that ANA, their goal is to mandate minimum and specific numerical ratios within each hospital unit that applies at all …show more content…
The Registered Nurse Staffing Act (2015) will address all the concerns of the stakeholders, hospitals, patients and registered nurses in regards to safe staffing practices. The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015 amends the title XVII Medicare of Social Security Act to mandate that each hospital funded by Medicare, implements a hospital-wide staffing plan for all nursing services provided by the institution. This plan requires that an appropriate, yet not fixed, number of registered nurses provide direct care on each of the hospital’s unit during each shift. The staffing plan will allow for variation in the number of nurses on each unit/shift based on the characteristics of the patients and the unit. This will result in the delivery of safe quality care. Each hospital must develop a hospital nurse staffing committee who will be responsible for implementing the plan. Any hospital found violating the requirements of the act would be penalized. The bill was introduced in Senate on April 29th, 2015 and currently referred to the Committee on Finance. At this time the committee must take action on the bill by scheduling a hearing or else the bill will “die” as in previous years. If the bill does advance and is scheduled for a public
staffing plans. Labor unions such as the National Nurses United Association (2015) have a nationwide campaign that supports safe staffing for RNs and patients. They have two bills that are currently in the senate and in the House of Representatives. The National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Act (2015) and the Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (2015) both aim to establish direct care registered nurse-to-patient ratios requirements in hospitals. Unlike professional organizations like that ANA, their goal is to mandate minimum and specific numerical ratios within each hospital unit that applies at all …show more content…
The Registered Nurse Staffing Act (2015) will address all the concerns of the stakeholders, hospitals, patients and registered nurses in regards to safe staffing practices. The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2015 amends the title XVII Medicare of Social Security Act to mandate that each hospital funded by Medicare, implements a hospital-wide staffing plan for all nursing services provided by the institution. This plan requires that an appropriate, yet not fixed, number of registered nurses provide direct care on each of the hospital’s unit during each shift. The staffing plan will allow for variation in the number of nurses on each unit/shift based on the characteristics of the patients and the unit. This will result in the delivery of safe quality care. Each hospital must develop a hospital nurse staffing committee who will be responsible for implementing the plan. Any hospital found violating the requirements of the act would be penalized. The bill was introduced in Senate on April 29th, 2015 and currently referred to the Committee on Finance. At this time the committee must take action on the bill by scheduling a hearing or else the bill will “die” as in previous years. If the bill does advance and is scheduled for a public