Editor:
Having been a nurse in California when they instituted nurse staffing ratios, I have a good perspective on what would happen if Washington passed HB 1868. Just like in California, the continuing shortage of nurses and the inflexibility of the ratios would delay and restrict care here. Simply put, units will close, and people will die.
We would have to cap admissions and keep beds unfilled because we are short of nurses needed to meet ratios. Some patients would sit in the Emergency Department lobby for 12-24 hours waiting to be seen. That happens in California. The hospital I was working in had a patient die in the lobby.
If our delivery or neonatal units were full, a mom in labor or baby would be sent to another hospital — the worst nightmare for a parent. We had to do that all the time in California. There is nothing patient-friendly about that practice.
Our current staffing is set by our internal staffing committee and is adaptable to acuity and time of day. For example, the staffing committee feels we need fewer nurses at night. But the ratios in this bill are round the clock, with no flexibility.
The lesson from California is clear: Ratios don’t work, and they endanger lives.
Jennifer Culbertson, MSN, RNC, CENP
Chief Nursing Officer
Swedish Edmonds
Wow. Interesting. So fewer nurses at night. I can’t say this surprises me much knowing CA. Well you should know after going thru this pandemic I would think. SO yeah. Agreed. I wish you luck. Hopeful for better days ahead less stress for all of your hospital workers. Great job during all of this. Thank you from an Edmonds Citizen.
Nursing staff shortages are a big issue in Wa. state. Swedish, like a lot of other hospitals in this area, has been hiring a lot of travel nurses to fill a worsening shortage of nurses. The hospital has to pay double the hourly pay of a resident nurse…but what’s a person to do? There are still a lot of Canadian nurses who would move here to work available, though not as many as 5 years ago.
Swedish should pay their resident nurses what they pay the travelers. They are worth just as much, and the hospital is looking for answers…
Jennifer,if you read this….here’s a good way to decrease Swedish nursing shortage…
GO PROACTIVE! (This idea has been done before, with good success)…
Go to a few Canadian cities…publicize a hiring fair for 2 weeks before arrival…meet with nurses who want to work in USA….and get them verified as qualified.
A 4 city tour in BC/Alberta regions would probably get you between 40 to 60 good nurses. My wife did that for a hospital in Alabama many years ago..(she works for Swedish /Cherry Hill….and she’s Canadian!!)
Pick her brain for good hiring ideas. No one goes to nursing pre-grads either…….2 days a month at least going directly to schools with job offers for them…
Go proactive!!
Jennifer…my wife’s name is Shelley Burnett..if you want to call her ….she will help you.
I was also a nurse in California when this was passed and I can tell you it made a huge difference for the better. Not only did it restrict the number of patients a nurse managed on a shift to shift basis, it also enabled nursing administration to hire more nurses. The answer is not to increase the number of patients a nurse has to manage. Instead we need to train and hire more nurses, and then train them well for their specific role when they are hired. I know that can happen. It takes a lot of effort by nursing schools, nursing administration, nursing education, nursing mangement, and front line nurses to make it happen.
Lila – I am a retired military nurse and nurse executive. I am also a Past President of the American Organization of Nurse Leaders as well as Executive Director Emeritus of the Northwest Organization of Nurse Leaders. I am well versed in both the issues of nurse staffing ratios and the nursing shortage. Staffing ratios stifle the creativity and flexibility of staff nurses to address the staffing needs of patients at the point of care. The research on outcomes of care do not support your anecdotal observations. This issue of how many patients a nurse cares for on a shift is not simply a matter of ratios nor of educating more nurses. Nurse shortages have come and gone on an iterative basis since WWII and probably before that. In this state, the WA Center for Nursing was established in 2002 to provide data to track RN/LPN/DNP needs to avert future crises of force strength. I know this because I was the first Board president for the Center. Yes, we need to address the manpower shortages and hire more nurses. But, nurse staffing ratios is not the avenue by which to achieve a solution to this current workforce shortage.
Jennifer, as a retired RN and Nursing Supervisor at Swedish Edmonds, I can promise all of those things have been happening for years at Swedish Edmonds. We often closed beds. The ER has always held patients. I know from friends who are still there and the many who have left, that you are bleeding nurses now. the only way to stop the hemorrhage is to support the nurses. I’ve worked at hospitals that ignored nurses and admitted to the bed numbers. I the bed was empty, we put a patient in it. Never mind that the nurses already had 8 patients. Hiring more nurses until the problems are addressed is like trying to fill a tank that has a leak.
Respectfully
John G Hood RN, BSN, Retired.