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Massachusetts Groups Lobby for Nurse-Patient Ratios to Improve Care Quality
The Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Patients testified before the state legislature's Joint Committee on Health Care in support of a measure that would impose restrictions on the number of patients a nurse can care for at any given time, WWLP reports. Under the proposed Patient Safety Act, the state Department of Public Health would establish patient-to-nurse ratios and ban mandatory overtime for nurses. The legislation also includes several measures aimed at improving nurse recruitment and attracting more nurse educators. Supporters of the bill, including the Massachusetts Nurses Association, contend that the measure will help improve patient care and reduce nurse burnout and turnover. However, hospital administrators have expressed concern about the House bill, with one local hospital executive noting that "it's not that we are against good nurse staffing, it's just that this is a rigid and unworkable piece of legislation in this period of health care." According to the Newburyport News, a similar bill introduced in the state Senate would establish nursing committees, "which include frontline nurses in the hospitals to generate recommendations and staffing plans" (Cintron, WWLP, 11/2/09; Curley Katzman, Newburyport News, 11/3/09).