In order to improve patient care and alleviate nurses from routine overtime, healthcare organizations and lawmakers need to correct staffing shortages, one nurse wrote in an op-ed published in The Columbus Dispatch.
Nurses are tired of staffing shortages being the norm and while COVID-19 has spotlighted the issue, it's a historic battle, Jessica Frymer, RN and board member of the Ohio Nurses Association wrote. Hospitals often look at staffing cuts as an easy way to save money, but that means increased burnout for nurses and declines in patient care, Ms. Frymer wrote.
"This penny-pinching can affect patients as research associates long nurse shifts with increased medical errors," Ms. Frymer wrote. "It is troubling that certain groups, who should be patient-centered, stand in the way of better patient care."
Lawmakers and healthcare organizations should take action and support Ohio's House Bill 144, legislation that would eliminate mandatory nurse overtime and require hospitals to develop fair staffing plans, Ms. Frymer wrote. As it stands, mandatory overtime means 12-hour shifts routinely become 16 hours or more.
She points out that California is currently the only state to have successfully legislated nurse-to-patient ratios. The law requires hospital wards to maintain a ratio of one nurse for every five patients, while intensive care units must maintain a one to two ratio.
If this type of action was more widely implemented, and if decision makers listened to such warnings earlier, perhaps the situation wouldn't be so dire today, Ms. Fryer wrote.