National Nurses United

8 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G M A R C H | A P R I L 2 0 1 6 MASSACHUSETTS T oo often, Massachusetts nurses' ability to care for a patient is compromised by one thing: the healthcare industry's failure to adequately staff hospital units. On a recent February evening, nurses told lawmakers they've had enough. Hundreds of RNs from across the state gathered outside the State House in Boston, demanding safe patient limits and taking a moment of silence for all the thousands of patients who have been harmed or killed because their nurse was caring for too many patients at one time. "As nurses, we take seriously our duty to protect people at their most vulnerable," Massachusetts Nurses Association President Donna Kelly-Williams, RN said at the Feb. 25 vigil. "Patients who need around-the- clock bedside care from registered nurses often cannot speak for themselves. This vigil is their voice. Nurses know from experience that limiting the number of patients a nurse cares for at one time improves outcomes, and decades of research prove it." Nurses gathered from every corner of the state to support The Patient Safety Act, pending legislation that would require vari- able, evidence-based patient limits for nurs- es in all hospital units. In 2014, legislation was signed into law mandating safe limits for intensive care unit patients. The Patient Safety Act will expand on those ICU limits and dramatically improve patient safety by setting a safe limit on the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time, while providing the flexibility to adjust staffing based on patients' needs. The nurses were joined at the vigil by the act's sponsors, Sen. Marc Pacheco and Rep. Denise Garlick. "There are many patients that have suffered greatly as a result of not having adequate, safe staffing in Massachusetts," Pacheco said. "And that must stop." Two studies were published as recently as January demonstrating that patient outcomes improve when nurses have safe patient limits. One of the studies, published in JAMA Surgery, showed a 20 percent lower risk that a patient will die within 30 days of having general surgery at a hospital with above average nurse staffing levels. Another study, published in the January 2016 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Medical Care, included 11,000 patients in 75 hospitals. Researchers found that for every patient added to a nurse's workload, the likelihood of a patient surviving cardiac arrest decreased by 5 percent. "No safe staffing means patient deaths," Garlick said. "Nurses know that. We know those results. Let there be no shadow of a doubt about that. We are not talking about some issue that is helpful. We are talking about the life and the death of our patients, of our families, of the people we care for every single day." —Joe Markman Nurses hold vigil to demand safe staffing law NEWS BRIEFS

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