When nurses are forced to carry a heavy patient load because of understaffing, the first to suffer are the patients. Several speakers at a Washington, D.C., City Hall press conference Monday said that legislation to establish a nurse-to-patient safe staffing ratio would protect patients’ safety and care.

This is National Nurses Week and National Nurses United (NNU) is sending out “a simple THANK YOU” to the nation’s 3.1 million registered nurses because:

Your work is not easy. You must have compassion and endurance to be there in the middle of the night, when your patient is struggling with pain. You must have patience and courage to fight that bureaucratic red tape that’s delaying your patient’s medications from the hospital pharmacy.

Kudos to Florida nurses, members of the National Nurses United (NNU), on a fantastic new contract!

This out this morning from PR Wire:

Registered nurses at 10 Florida hospitals that are a part of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, Nashville-based HCA, have achieved their first collective bargaining contract with important improvements in patient care protections and enhanced professional and economic standards. Together, these provisions will help keep experienced RNs on staff at the bedside, National Nurses United (NNU) announced today. NNU is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the U.S., with 170,000 members.

Another major study shows that California’s landmark nurse to-patient staffing ratio law improves the quality of patient care and enhances registered nurse staffing.

The latest study, by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Arizona State University, also refutes predictions promoted by healthcare industry opponents of the California law that hospitals might respond by disproportionately hiring lower-skill licensed vocational nurses.