The American Nurses Association (ANA) underscores the urgency for Congressional leaders, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and other key stakeholders to advance efforts in implementing safe staffing standards, including minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
The nurse staffing crisis demands a national dialogue with nurse-led approaches to help ease longstanding work environment challenges that nurses face across numerous specialties and healthcare settings. ANA supports minimum nurse-to-patient ratios enacted by nurse-centered committees dependent upon key factors such as patient acuity, intensity of the unit practice setting, and nurses’ competency, among other variables.
“ANA’s goal is to empower nurses and position them for success. Embracing setting specific ratios for nurses should be viewed as only one piece of a much larger solution. We’re still working to address other longstanding workforce challenges that have dramatically worsened the nurse’s staffing crisis, such as burnout, workplace violence, mandatory overtime, and barriers to full practice authority, says ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN.
“Studies have shown unsafe staffing negatively affects patient care outcomes and the well-being of nurses. According to the American Nurses Foundation’s national workplace survey of nurses, 31% of nurses are required on a weekly basis to work beyond their scheduled shifts to provide adequate care to patients. And the National Council of State Boards of Nursing says a quarter to half of the nurses reported feeling emotionally drained (50.8%), used up (56.4%), fatigued (49.7%), burned out (45.1%), or at the end of the rope (29.4%) “a few times a week” or “every day.”
“We urge health care leaders and policymakers at all levels to effect the necessary change, but we must not underestimate the power of nurse advocacy. Direct care nurses have special relationships with their patients, imparting unique insights into patient care and the dynamics of the practice setting. That is knowledge that can’t be matched. Nurses are the most trusted professionals in the U.S., especially among healthcare consumers, so we should both trust and empower them to be the decision-makers on how to improve their work environment and deliver the best patient care,” says ANA Enterprise CEO Loressa Cole, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN.
ANA’s call for staffing solutions that include ratios was voted on and approved at its 2022 Membership Assembly, the official voting and governing body of the association, which led to nearly 400 members of ANA convening on the U.S. Capitol to petition Congress to address the national nurse staffing crisis last month. ANA is not only advocating but seeking solutions, launching the Nurse Staffing Think Tank in 2022 in partnership with other leading organizations, which produced a series of actionable strategies that healthcare organizations could implement within 12 – 18 months. In May 2023, the Nurse Staffing Task Force identified another 65 proposed long-term recommendations to spur innovation, policy, and regulatory action, encourage new care models, and effectively support direct care nurses and nurse leaders.
ANA continues to advocate for nurses, remain a collaborative partner, and call on Congress to enact meaningful legislation and policies that improve nurse staffing and work environments. ANA provides nurses at all levels key resources to help inform advocacy and approaches to address the nurse staffing crisis.
