Responding to Comments

Hello fellow bloggers,

In response to the questions and comments left by visitors our group wanted to explain this bill a little further. The legislation does not set a nation-wide number that hospitals and agencies need to adhere to for staffing plans. It does however require hospitals to provide a detailed staffing plan with a safe nurse/patient ratio, that cannot be more that already passed national and state legislation.

We, as a group of senior level nursing students, do not feel that the government should impose a number to the nurse/patient ratio. Many things must be taken into consideration when planning care for patients and without looking at specific patients and their individual health status it is impossible to decide the number of patients a nurse can take care of at once. Also when planning nurse staffing in the hospital one must remember that these patients are sick and can become critical and have a higher acuity of nursing care at any moment. For example, if a nurse is busy with 8 patients and one patient's health status starts to deteriorate, how can she continue to care for all 8 patients safely and effectively.