Bills Aim to Eliminate Forced Overtime and Mandate Nurse Patient-Ratio

In the continuous growth of nurse staffing issues, labor unions in Florida are supporting bills that focus on reinforcing safe nurse-patient ratios and ban mandatory overtime.

As previous studies have proven, increased gap of nurse patient ratios increases the risk of medical errors such as those related to medications and occurrence of infections like pressure ulcers, that are highly preventable. If one nurse cared for less patients, they would be given more attention, which assures the quality of patient safety and prevents nurse burnout as well.

However, institutions in Florida said that “this law is impossible to implement” not because of financial matters but for the reason that there are not enough qualified nurses to fill in the vacant positions. They also stated that a ratio of eight patients to one nurse in an 18-hour shift is still safe as long as they are assisted with LPNs and nursing assistants.

Though an ideal setting is still far from reality for most nurses, institutions can start measures to be able to achieve this goal. One thing they can do is coordinate with nursing schools to have an enrollment to employment system. While in school, student nurses can be given the chance to train in an institution to familiarize themselves with the setting and protocols. By the time those students graduate and become registered nurses, they would be ready for employment as they already know the basics of working in that hospital.

Another is to develop a training program in the institution for registered nurses who they find as unqualified. Instead of relying on nursing assistants and LPNs, registered nurses in the training program can assist the nurses in the unit. After the training period, the nurse trainees can undergo an assessment exam to determine if they already have enough qualifications to be employed as a regular nurse in the institutions.

It would be a dream for every nurse to have such laws passed in their state, to be protected from issues that put the patients and their profession on the line, but until then, nurses would have to provide quality care to thebest of their abilities.

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