Providers, Want Safe Staffing?
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NJ Providers: Send This Letter To Your Legislators!
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Are You Going To Nurses Take DC?
Its the only national rally and conference for safe staffing! If we don't advocate than who else will? When: April 21-22, 2020 For more info: nusestakedc.com 
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Dear Legislators,
As a physician/provider I feel compelled to reach out to you today regarding the need for safe nurse to patient ratios and adequate frontline staffing in our medical facilities. Patients admitted to facilities rely on the availability of trained staff to take care of their physical and emotional needs. The nursing and ancillary staff that provides the majority of care can only successfully do so if there is enough staff. As a provider I am dependent on the nursing staff to continuously asses my patients in order to pick up early signs of deteriorating health, which can be very subtle. Evidenced based research concludes that nurse staffing is directly related to outcomes. A 2010 study showed that patients in New Jersey who were admitted to medical-surgical units had a 13% increased incidents of death when compared to California which had an implemented nurse-to-patient ratios of 1 nurse to 5 patients in medical-surgical units. Sadly, nurses in New Jersey can have six to seven patients each on units that have a mix of medical-surgical patients and patients that require continuous cardiac monitoring. The chronic issue of understaffing and unsafe staffing has not been addressed and meaningful changes have not been implemented across the board that would ensure that patients are going to receive the care and monitoring that they require. It is unrealistic to expect that nurses caring for patients that require neurological assessments and vitals signs every 15 minutes per standards of care, would be able to monitor and care for three patients at one time. It is also unrealistic that nurses in an emergency room can care for multiple patients at one time when the patient is in the acute stage of an emergency. While unsafe staffing has been a nation wide issue throughout the healthcare continuum and has been widely ignored by those operating medical facilites, it is time that meaningful legislation be implement to protect my patients in medical facilities. |
Want to learn more about safe staffing and policy? View Dr. Linda Aiken's 2019 Webinar |
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Got Unsafe Staffing?
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NJ Hospital Staffing
NJ Hospital Staffing Results:
As we continue to survey nurses from around the state, we will be adding additional surveys to our site including a comprehensive survey for hospital maternal/ L&D care.
As we continue to survey nurses from around the state, we will be adding additional surveys to our site including a comprehensive survey for hospital maternal/ L&D care.
Why Safe Ratios?
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New Jersey's Healthcare Outcomes Our outcomes are not good! -We are ranked 47th in the country for maternal deaths (We have 1 more death than the countries of Uzbekistan and Georgia, and 1 less death than Mexico). -Black women die at a rate of 3 times more during their pregnancy and postpartum stages than white women. -Black infants have a 3 times higher mortality rate in their first year of life. -In 2014 Every hospital was fined by Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) for poor care related to unplanned readmissions--- hospitals don't get paid for those readmissions! -In 2015 New Jersey was the 5th most expensive when it came to hospital care! -New Jersey provides the minimal amount of care hours per day for nursing home patients, which is only 2.5 hours of care! Imagine how much care a 200 pound adult who cannot feed, turn, bathe or toilet themselves would need? Certainly more than 2.5 hours of care! -Nurses caring for mothers with maternal complications reported not having training related to the diagnosis the patients were being treated for-- If the nurses don't have the training, how do we expect to reduce maternal deaths? |
What Can You Do?
Attend Events Educate Legislators Do Calls to Action
2018-2019 NJ Staffing Bills For more information on the staffing bills click here. Where are we now with safe staffing? Jan 2018 a new Hospital Safe Staffing Bill (Nurse to Patient Ratio) was introduced in to NJ Senate (S989) and Assembly (A1470). These bills have the same text as the prior bill S1280. By October 2018 the bills have gained support from: Senators (district number): 1. Joseph Vitale (19) 2. Loretta Weinberg (37) 3. Nilsa Cruz-Perez (5) 4. Vin Gopal (11) 5. Linda Greenstein (14) 6. Shirley Turner (15) 7. Nia Gill (34) 8. Patrick Diegnan (18) A link to the senate bill: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp Assembly support for A1470: 1. Dan Benson (14) 2. Carol Murphy (7) 3. Angelica Jimenez (32) 4. Mila Jasey (27) 5. Joe Danielsen (17) 6. Thomas Giblin (34) 7. Andrew Zwicker (16) 8. Angela McKnight (31) 9. Joann Downey (11) 10. Eric Houghtaling (11) 11. Linda Carter (22) 12. Wayne DeAngelo (14) 13. Gabriela Mosquera (4) 14. Valerie Vainieri Huttle (37) 15. Shanique Speight (29) 16. Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (15) What will it take to pass a law? We have a lot of work a head of us. There are 80 Assembly members and 40 Senators. Currently there is only Democrat support for this bill, and as we know patient safety should be bipartisan. I would encourage all of you to take the time and reach out to your district's 2 Assembly members and 1 Senator, email them, call them. Ask them to sponsor the bill. Share with them your experiences. Click on the link below to find your elected representatives. https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/districts/municipalities.asp A382 Nursing Home CNA to Patient Safe Staffing Bill This bill is currently stuck in Assembly. It has passed in the Senate but is currently stalled. July 2018 the bill removed a staffing requirement for pediatric long term care facilities prior to being passed in the Senate floor vote. This bill would set a minimal number of nursing aides per patient population. Bill Ratios: Daytime 1 aide per 8 patients Evening 1 aide per 10 patients Night 1 aide per 16 patients Legislation to allow patients to have video "nanny cams" in their rooms.... 2010-2011 Senator Stack introduced the first bill and had not Assembly Support, so the bill couldn't move forward. 2012-2013 Senator Addiego and Senator Stack introduced and Senate Bill S699, Assemblyman Connors and Assemblyman Ramos introduced Assembly bill A 3069, that bill died. 2014-2015 Assemblyman Raj Mukherji introduced A3069 and Senate Bill S699 was introduced- the Senate bill was pulled, and both bills died. 2016-2017 Assemblyman Raj Mukerji introduces another bill A2019 that bill had no accompanying Senate bill and no co-sponsors, so that bill dies. 2018 Assemblyman Raj Mukerji introduced the latest bill A2593, there are no cosponsors and there is no accompanying Senate bill. |
Help Us Track Unsafe Staffing With Flo's Whistle
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National Safe Staffing Bill
Send and E-mail to your Senators and Congress Member
Tell them to sponsor national safe staffing legislation bill S1063 and HR2392 now and in the future.
Currently there are only 2 New Jersey Congress Members who support the bill Congressman Payne and Congressman Sires.
Contact your Assembly and Senate Representatives
Ask Them To Support Safe Staffing Bill's:
Assembly BIll 1470
Senate Bill 989
Locate your representatives and their addresses here
Ask Them To Support Safe Staffing Bill's:
Assembly BIll 1470
Senate Bill 989
Locate your representatives and their addresses here
What Can You Do To Help Make Safe Staffing A Reality:
Nearly every person you know will be a patient at some point in their life. From our first breath and until our last, our profession is there for patients and families. We are there for the joyful moments, while we comfort in the darkest hours. What we need is to become a community of nurses and patients for safe staffing. Often times the public perceives the hospital driven short staffing as laziness or poor customer service. They may not be aware of rising patient loads with less nurses or ancillary services. As we manage up at our facilities we must also move forward with safe staffing and advocacy.
Sign, Share and Speak
The petition is the first step. It can be signed by anyone, not just nurses. This is an opportunity to let key players at the Senate and Assembly know that we stand behind THIS comprehensive bill. Talk to your friends and family about safe staffing. Ask them to sign the petition to support you as a nurse and the patients you care for. If you are member of a union thank them for the work they have done on the bill and ask them to share the link with the membership via e-mail.
Weekly Mass Phone, Tweets, FB Threads, e-mail and Snail Mail Key Members
Each week I will be posting the contact information for two members of the senate and the assembly health committees. These are the key members who need to know you want this bill passed as it is, not a watered down version that would only apply to one area of a hospital or only if the hospital is failing to reach its benchmarks. Once again anyone can participate.
Public Demonstrations/Education
Some people have asked about striking. I think striking would really hurt any effort to move this bill forward. What I do think is that we can really make an impact by publicly supporting each other by holding demonstration/ education gatherings near each others facilities, so that it does not disrupt the care of patients. If you work for one hospital system then you can support your fellow nurses by demonstrating at another system/ facility.
District Liaisons
What we are in need of is a team of about 3 nurse and or patients who would volunteer to act as liaisons for their voting districts. While it is important to focus on the health committees now, we cannot forget about our own local representatives. If you are interested. Please e-mail me your name and contact information. The goal of having liaisons is to educate your representatives on the issues we face in regards to unsafe staffing and how S1280 can help save lives.
Together we can make a difference, but we must look at our own history and the history of California's bill to be successful. The unions cannot do it by themselves. Nurses cannot do it by themselves. There is a lot of ground to cover in the next few months. Thank you to all of you for taking the first steps. Don't give up. We save lives everyday, now its time to save this bill.
Why I Got Involved...
Like many nurses I entered the profession expecting to be working in an environment were the goal was to help the sick and injured. Perhaps I was naïve and idealistic. The picture that was painted for me, and the picture that is painted by the expensive marketing companies that influence our decisions on healthcare is a façade.
The world of healthcare is not about the patient as much as it is about the bottom line. How much a facility can charge, save and be reimbursed. The money of medicine has polluted the concept of how we care for our sick, while exploiting a predominately female workforce, its nurses and potentially putting patients at risk. When does it stop? When will local and state government choose the safety of patients, the rights of workers over the profits of an industry where executives are making millions of dollars while cutting staffing and services?
For sixteen years New Jersey’s state Hospital Association and the Organization of Nurse Executives have fought to protect their billion dollar hospital administration industry from mandated safety regulations that would have implemented safe staffing ratios. As more and more hospitals merge the industry is increasing the risk to patients as they require those physically taking care of the patients to do more with less. Patients are needlessly suffering and ultimately dying because of greed.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities should be places of healing, not places where patients are forcefully neglected due to lack of staffing. It’s time that we end this accepted practice. Its time that we stop letting harassment and fear dictate the care our patients receive, and get back to following provider orders that are expected. Patients not having dressing changes or being turned every two hours because there is not enough help is wrong. Nursing home patients who cannot feed themselves deserve the help they require, not the limited help that administrators provide, such as only staffing three nursing assistance and one LPN for 60 patients. Patients are people first and foremost. They deserve better and we must demand it.
Sincerely Yours,
Kate McLaughlin
Sign, Share and Speak
The petition is the first step. It can be signed by anyone, not just nurses. This is an opportunity to let key players at the Senate and Assembly know that we stand behind THIS comprehensive bill. Talk to your friends and family about safe staffing. Ask them to sign the petition to support you as a nurse and the patients you care for. If you are member of a union thank them for the work they have done on the bill and ask them to share the link with the membership via e-mail.
Weekly Mass Phone, Tweets, FB Threads, e-mail and Snail Mail Key Members
Each week I will be posting the contact information for two members of the senate and the assembly health committees. These are the key members who need to know you want this bill passed as it is, not a watered down version that would only apply to one area of a hospital or only if the hospital is failing to reach its benchmarks. Once again anyone can participate.
Public Demonstrations/Education
Some people have asked about striking. I think striking would really hurt any effort to move this bill forward. What I do think is that we can really make an impact by publicly supporting each other by holding demonstration/ education gatherings near each others facilities, so that it does not disrupt the care of patients. If you work for one hospital system then you can support your fellow nurses by demonstrating at another system/ facility.
District Liaisons
What we are in need of is a team of about 3 nurse and or patients who would volunteer to act as liaisons for their voting districts. While it is important to focus on the health committees now, we cannot forget about our own local representatives. If you are interested. Please e-mail me your name and contact information. The goal of having liaisons is to educate your representatives on the issues we face in regards to unsafe staffing and how S1280 can help save lives.
Together we can make a difference, but we must look at our own history and the history of California's bill to be successful. The unions cannot do it by themselves. Nurses cannot do it by themselves. There is a lot of ground to cover in the next few months. Thank you to all of you for taking the first steps. Don't give up. We save lives everyday, now its time to save this bill.
Why I Got Involved...
Like many nurses I entered the profession expecting to be working in an environment were the goal was to help the sick and injured. Perhaps I was naïve and idealistic. The picture that was painted for me, and the picture that is painted by the expensive marketing companies that influence our decisions on healthcare is a façade.
The world of healthcare is not about the patient as much as it is about the bottom line. How much a facility can charge, save and be reimbursed. The money of medicine has polluted the concept of how we care for our sick, while exploiting a predominately female workforce, its nurses and potentially putting patients at risk. When does it stop? When will local and state government choose the safety of patients, the rights of workers over the profits of an industry where executives are making millions of dollars while cutting staffing and services?
For sixteen years New Jersey’s state Hospital Association and the Organization of Nurse Executives have fought to protect their billion dollar hospital administration industry from mandated safety regulations that would have implemented safe staffing ratios. As more and more hospitals merge the industry is increasing the risk to patients as they require those physically taking care of the patients to do more with less. Patients are needlessly suffering and ultimately dying because of greed.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities should be places of healing, not places where patients are forcefully neglected due to lack of staffing. It’s time that we end this accepted practice. Its time that we stop letting harassment and fear dictate the care our patients receive, and get back to following provider orders that are expected. Patients not having dressing changes or being turned every two hours because there is not enough help is wrong. Nursing home patients who cannot feed themselves deserve the help they require, not the limited help that administrators provide, such as only staffing three nursing assistance and one LPN for 60 patients. Patients are people first and foremost. They deserve better and we must demand it.
Sincerely Yours,
Kate McLaughlin
