By Francy Wade
Have you ever been sitting behind your desk at work, when your eyes start to cross after your long nine-hour day? What if it weren’t a computer and instead you were standing behind a heart monitor in the intensive care unit? What if your shift were 16-hours hours long and overnight? What if being overworked meant medical mistakes and lives lost. This is exactly the crisis the Michigan Nurses Association recently set out to solve.
In order to increase patient safety, the Michigan Nurses Association is advocating legislation that would limit the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time.
Anderson Robbins was brought in to gauge voter’s attitudes toward this issue. Our poll of over 800 voters found:
- 80 percent of Michigan voters were in favor of a law establishing minimum nurse staffing levels;
- 85 percent of voters said minimum nurse staffing levels would increase the quality of care; and
- Seven in 10 voters would support the staffing requirements even if health care costs increase.
The nurses and political leaders now had the data they needed to hold a press conference, get media attention and educate voters with these very compelling figures. The so-called “Safe Patient Care Act” is expected to be introduced soon.
We were proud to help the nurses in Michigan get the fuel they needed to make a difference for their peers and patients. But this problem isn’t exclusive to Michigan. Dozens of other states are addressing this issue. We are honored to have worked with the Massachusetts Nurses Association for the past decade leading up to 2014 when they successfully passed the Nation’s first legation to limit the number of patients that can be assigned to a nurse at one time.
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