New National Survey Reveals an Overwhelming Number of Americans Say Not Enough Nurses to Care for Patients

Washington, DC – Nurses from across the country today announced a new campaign for safe staffing standards at hospitals to improve quality of patient care, save lives and prevent experienced nurses from leaving the profession.  A new national poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO nurses shows that 75 percent of Americans believe that there are not enough registered nurses in hospitals to care for patients and that the shortage of nurses has a significant impact on quality of care.

“The quality of patient care is suffering as a result of too few nurses and too many patients in our nation’s hospitals,” said Cheryl Johnson, president, United American Nurses.  “The situation is critical for both patients and nurses.  AFL-CIO nurses are urging state and federal legislators to take immediate action to establish safe staffing standards.”

Half a million nurses have joined together in the unprecedented “United Voice for Safe Staffing Now” campaign.  AFL-CIO unions are supporting legislation to establish staffing standards in more than 15 states.  California became the first state to adopt staffing ratios following a successful campaign by nurses and patient advocates.  Hundreds of nurses are lobbying Congress on national Nurse Day May 6 to support federal legislation for safe staffing in hospitals.

“Nurses have always been the best advocates for their patients’ interests, but patients are dying every day because there are too few nurses to care for them,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, D-IL.  “Because this is a national problem, I am proud to be working with nurses on legislation that I will soon introduce to require safe staffing standards.”

The poll conducted by Lake Snell Perry and Associates in April 2003 interviewed more than 1000 adults ages 18 or older nationwide.  The findings are a representative sample of all demographic groups, political affiliations and income levels.

Key findings of the AFL-CIO nurses survey:

• Seventy-five percent of Americans say there are not enough registered nurses, while only 15 percent say there are enough;
• Younger voters, as well as older voters, feel there are not enough registered nurses;
• Belief that there is a lack of registered nurses cuts across political lines (77 percent of Democrats, 78 percent of Independents and 74 percent of Republicans);
• Younger people are more likely than older people to believe the quality of care will be affected.  Eighty-three percent of people under age 45 say there would be a huge/big impact compared to 69 percent of people over age 45;
• Racially, whites and African Americans are slightly more likely than Hispanics to see an impact on the quality of care, although still seven out of ten across all racial groups feel there is an impact (77 percent, 78 percent and 71 percent respectively);
• Seventy-three percent of men and 79 percent of women feel there is a large impact on patient care.  But women feel even more intensely than men (51 percent to 33 percent).

“We went into the profession because we wanted to help people who are too sick and too frail to take care of themselves,” said David Cox, a North Carolina nurse.  “But we are being asked to risk patient safety by taking care of too many patients and working too many hours.”

A study by Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, of the University of Pennsylvania found that when a hospital decreases a registered nurse’s patient load from eight patients to four, the risk that a surgical patient will die within 30 days is lowered by nearly one-third.  The staffing shortage has also forced one in every five practicing registered nurses to consider leaving direct patient care.

The following AFL-CIO unions are participating in the nurse campaign:  American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE); American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); American Federation of Teachers-Healthcare (AFT); Communications Workers of America (CWA); Service Employees International Union-Nurse Alliance (SEIU); United American Nurses (UAN) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Contact: Suzanne Ffolkes 202-637-5018, cell 202-262-1581