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Nurse mandate no cure
Moore offers compromise to protect patients, nurses Boston Herald Editorial January 31, 2012 ... Massachusetts hospitals were warned last week that they’re in for yet another cut in government reimbursement rates, on the same day a union representing some Bay State nurses was pushing for a bill that would drive health care costs even higher. Timing is everything. This year the Massachusetts Nurses Association flew in a nurse from California — the only state where government bureaucrats, not hospital administrators, determine how many patients a nurse can care for at one time — to sing the praises of a mandatory minimum staffing bill to a legislative committee. “I am here to tell you it has been a great success,” said DeAnn McEwen, a registered nurse in California. A success for the unions that represent nurses, to be sure. But a success as in, improving patient outcomes? Saving lives? Because those are the justifications that supporters of the bill have long used to sell it to lawmakers, and the evidence is still thin that it has had that effect. A recent study frequently cited by supporters of government-mandated nurse staffing concludes that California has in fact increased the ranks of registered nurses working in its hospitals, which is no surprise. That was the whole point of the exercise. They then cite other studies that link RN care with positive patient outcomes, and suggest that proves the California mandate has had the intended effect. That’s a pretty weak association. The California law has been welcomed by nurses who feel that the added staff eases their burden, and that’s no small thing given the heroic work that nurses are asked to do. But just how does the union expect struggling hospitals to pay for mandatory new nursing staff? And if there’s a minimum staffing law for nurses, should we also have one for nurses’ aides, respiratory therapists and the other key members of a patient’s care team? Until we see irrefutable evidence that when government administrators make staffing decisions instead of nurse managers, patients get better, we can’t support this law This editorial appears courtesy of the Boston Herald. |
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539 - An Act to promote the nursing profession and promote safe patient care
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