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.

Join our fight for safe staffing

We need a national nurse-to-patient staffing ratios law now more than ever.

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

In January, New York State Nurses Association nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital went on strike for better patient care and to win what their chief nursing officer told them they would never win: safe staffing ratios. Not only did nurses win new ratios in their contract, but they also won strong new staffing enforcement language.
July 19, 2023
A legislative plan to set safe limits on the number of patients nurses can be assigned, curb excessive mandatory nurse overtime, and require hospitals to disclose their RN staffing has been introduced in both the Michigan state House and state Senate. The bills, known as the Safe Patient Care Act, aim to keep patients safe in Michigan hospitals and build and retain a strong nursing workforce.
July 19, 2023
We know the number-one thing that would keep nurses working is a safe patient load. NNU is backing federal legislation to provide just that. The Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act mandates federal safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, which have been proven to improve patient outcomes, decrease workplace violence, and attract and retain nurses.
June 8, 2023

Press releases

National Nurses United and New York State Nurses Association President Nancy Hagans, RN, testified today at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in support of federal legislation supporting mandatory minimum nurse to patient ratios.
NNU and New York State Nurses Association President Nancy Hagans, RN, will testify at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Friday, Oct. 27 at 9 a.m. ET in support of federal legislation supporting mandatory minimum registered nurse-to-patient ratios.
Registered nurses and health care workers at Prime Healthcare’s Shasta Regional Medical Center (SRMC) in Redding, Calif., will picket on Tuesday, Oct. 24, to protest management’s proposed staffing scheme because it violates California’s safe staffing law and jeopardizes patient care.
Registered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital in Chicago, Ill., voted unanimously in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract on Friday, Oct. 13, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention.