Between January 2022 and July 2023, nurses in Massachusetts filed 12,600 unsafe staffing reports, according to a Sept. 18 news release from the state's nursing association.
"There is absolutely no question that limiting the number of patients a nurse cares for at one time is safer for patients and is the only solution to the nurse staffing crisis," Katie Murphy, RN, the president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association stated in the release. "Until we ensure that nurses have safe working conditions with enforceable limits on the number of patients assigned to them, nurses will continue to flee the bedside by the thousands seeking a safer, more satisfying environment."
Nurses from across the state will testify before lawmakers Sept. 20 in support of advancing staffing requirements for nurses in hospital settings.
The legislation they are looking to advance would require the state's department of public health to "create specific nurse-patient limits in hospital units [that] would tackle years of deteriorating patient care quality and burnout that is driving nurses away from the bedside," according to the release.
Staffing requirements for nurses is something that hospital groups have repeatedly opposed, citing financial strains, among other concerns.
In 2018, voters rejected a similar proposal.