Safe Staffing Ratios

Large group of nurses hold signs "Safe Staffing Saves Lives"

NNU’s proposal for minimum, mandated, nurse-to-patient staffing ratios protect our patients’ right to nursing care. We know that every patient deserves a single standard of high-quality care. Safe staffing ratios, coupled with nurses’ powerful voice of advocacy secured in collective bargaining, protect our patients from complications that arise from missed care such as medical errors, health care disparities, infections, and so much more. Read more »

Safe Staffing Saves Lives

Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act fact sheet

Read our fact sheet on legislation that would protect patients and improve health care by setting mandated, minimum, registered nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

Group of nurses inside hospital hold sign "Staff Up for Sage Care"

RN Staffing Ratios: A Necessary Solution to the Patient Safety Crisis in U.S. Hospitals

NNU stands ready to help you bring ratios to your state. Read our booklet to learn more.

About safe staffing ratios

Group of nurses inside hospital hold signs "Safe Staffing Saves Lives"

Protecting Our Front Line: Ending the Shortage of Good Nursing Jobs and the Industry-created Unsafe Staffing Crisis

In this report, National Nurses United describes how the hospital industry has driven registered nurses from the bedside.

Graphic of recommended nurse to patient ratios by unit

The science of ratios

Decades of studies have shown that more nurses equate to lives saved and fewer complications. Researchers have been focusing on what exactly is the mediating link between increasing RN staffing and improved outcomes.

Learning from the California experience

In 1999, the registered nurses of the California Nurses Association successfully sponsored and lobbied the California Legislature to pass A.B. 394, the historic bill that made minimum, specific numerical staffing ratios the golden standard in the Golden State.

What does the California ratios law actually require?

The CNA-sponsored safe staffing law, has multiple provisions designed to remedy unsafe staffing in acute-care facilities.

RN Staffing Ratios Whitepaper

Learn more by reading NNU's staffing ratios whitepaper.

We need your help to get the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act passed to improve working conditions for nurses and to protect patients. Take action by urging your elected officials to support this critical legislation.

Videos

Safe staffing ratios protect patients and nurses

Safe RN ratios have been proven to improve the quality of care and nurse recruitment and retention in California hospitals.

California and beyond

California is the only state in the country that puts a legal limit on the number of patients a nurse can be made to care for at one time. National Nurses United fights for safe staffing ratios in our union contracts and for federal legislation for safe staffing ratios. 

All staffing ratios videos

Join our Safe Staffing Rapid Response Team to be part of a dedicated team of online volunteers. Members of the team will get first notice about developments and news regarding safe staffing  and will be ready to take action both online and in their communities.

Articles

Nurses smiling, holding signs "Union Nurses Build Healthy Communities"

Nurses march nationwide for safe staffing, patient protections against A.I.

Thousands of registered nurse members of National Nurses United (NNU) held actions, including marches, protests, and rallies, on Jan. 16 to demand the hospital industry ensure safe staffing levels and patient safeguards amidst the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence technologies.
Group of nurses by side of the road smiling, holding signs "No Cuts: A Healthy VA = Healthy Vets"

VA nurses across country fight for safe staffing, protest hiring freeze

Registered nurses who work at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals around the country, from New York to Ohio to North Carolina to Florida, held a national week of action in August. The nurses are calling on the VA to lift what is in effect a hiring freeze that has contributed to more than tens of thousands of vacancies across the health system, including thousands of RN positions.
Nurses outside holding signs "VA Nurses: Protecting America's Heroes"

VA nurses speak out for safe staffing

This spring Veterans Administration nurses from Georgia to Ohio have been rallying, protesting, and picketing for patient safety and safe staffing.

Press releases

Five nurses standing, smiling with Nevada State Sen. Rochelle Nguyen

Nevada nurses celebrate advancement of safe-staffing ratios bill

Registered nurses across the Silver State are celebrating today as new legislation, which would set maximum legal limits for the number of patients a nurse can be assigned, advances from the Nevada State Senate to the Nevada Assembly. The legislation has the potential to completely alter the landscape of nursing in the state.
Large group of nurses outside Capitol building in Washington, D.C. with raised fists

Members of Congress introduce safe staffing bill to require hospitals to protect patients and nurses

The more than 225,000 nurses represented by National Nurses United applaud the introduction of federal legislation to mandate minimum registered nurse-to-patient ratios in every hospital across the country. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky and new Senate sponsors, Sen. Alex Padilla and Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Pile of "Safe Staffing Now" buttons

Santa Clarita nurses to hold community rally for patient safety and safe staffing

Registered nurses at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, Calif., will hold a community rally on Saturday, April 26, to protest the administration’s refusal to address RNs’ ongoing concerns about safe staffing and safe working conditions.
Five Verdugo nurses smiling for a group shot

USC Verdugo Hills nurses ratify new contract with strong measures to improve patient safety and nurse retention

Registered nurses at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, Calif., voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new four-year contract on Tuesday, April 22, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention.
All staffing ratios press releases