American Nurses Association Underscores Urgency for Safe Staffing Solutions, Including Minimum Nurse-to-Patient Ratios
Posted 10 months ago in ANA Announcement
CONTACT:
Keziah Proctor, keziah.proctor@ana.org
SILVER SPRING, MD – Today, 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 the implementation of safe staffing standards, including minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
The nurse staffing crisis continues to demand a national dialogue with nurse-led approaches to help ease longstanding work environment challenges that nurses are facing across numerous specialties and health care 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 nurses staffing crisis such as burnout, workplace violence, mandatory overtime and barriers to full practice authority, said ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN.