Nurses Rally at State House for Enforceable Nurse-to-Patient Ratios

Last week, registered nurses with the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA) rallied in support of the Maine Quality Care Act (LD 1639), a bill that would create legally enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Stacy Brenner (D-Cumberland), will limit the number of patients that nurses can be responsible for in their patient care assignments. Numerous studies show that placing limits on the number of patients a nurse has in their assignment improves patient health outcomes and protects the health and safety of nurses.

“As nurses, our priority is our patients, not hospital profits,” said MSNA President Cokie Giles, RN. “Without safe and reasonable ratios, nurses cannot give the care they want and have been trained to give.”

“We cannot be the nurses that we want to be when our ratios are too high," said Lucy Dawson, an emergency department nurse at Maine Medical Center in Portland. "I have seen the increase in stress and moral injury that occurs when nurses are stretched too thin. Many of my coworkers are leaving the bedside because they are unable to give the care that patients need and deserve. The moral distress that this puts on nurses is overwhelming. It is no wonder why nurses are leaving the bedside."

Studies show that when RNs are forced to care for too many patients at one time, patients are at higher risk of preventable medical errors, avoidable complications, falls and injuries, pressure ulcers, increased length of hospital stay, higher numbers of hospital readmissions, and death.