Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1399555
2005 January — More than 1,500 RNs pack Department of Health Services hearing in Sacramento on plan to make emergency regulation a permanent rule change. CNA also delivers 11,000 letters from RNs to the DHS opposing the new rules. March — Superior Court judge issues ruling finding Schwarzenegger broke the law with his emergency regulation and failed to present any evidence of the pretexts he used for the emergency regulation. CNA reports that state has provided over $200 million to hospitals to implement ratios, despite constant complaints by hospitals that the ratios are an "unfunded mandate." Judge issues injunction against second emergency regulation filed by the Schwarzenegger administration following her initial ruling. November — Gov. Schwarzenegger drops fight against ratios after stunning special election loss two days earlier. All told, tens of thousands of nurses joined together and led 107 protests in 371 days throughout California and several other states. 2008 Ratios continue to improve, changing to 1:3 in step- down and 1:4 in telemetry and specialty units. 2010 A landmark study by Linda Aiken, RN, PhD, concludes that states studied would have fewer patient deaths if they matched California's ratios in post-surgical units; that fewer RNs miss changes in patient conditions because of workload; and that California RNs are far less likely to burn out and leave the profession. 2015 A 2015 study associated the California RN staffing ratio law with a 31.6 percent reduction in occupational injuries and illnesses among RNs working in the state's hospitals. 2020 Hospital industry exploits Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext for rolling back safe staffing standards. In addition to hospital applications to waive the ratios in individual units, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration bows to pressure and issues letter allowing hospitals "expedited waivers" to violate the state's nurse-to-patient ratios in key areas of the hos- pital, including ICU, telemetry, step-down, and the emergency department, without needing to prove such waivers are justified. Nurses immediately push back against the blanket waivers, knowing they will require already overbur- dened RNs to care for more patients at a time, and will be used as a first step to permanently overturn the safe-staffing law. Nurses organize dozens of protests at hospitals throughout the state, and in response, a number of hospitals withdraw their appli- cations for a waiver, or decide not to implement the waiver they already received. Nurses continue to demand that the state uphold safe staffing laws by canceling the waiver program. 2021 Nurses declare victory when the California Depart- ment of Public Health (CDPH) announces it will no longer approve "expedited waivers" allowing hospitals to violate the state's ratio laws during the Covid pandemic, and will end all existing waivers. 25