Reposted from NJSafeRatios.com and their facebook group! Join HERE if your interested in supporting safe patient ratios!
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Nurses Are Not Playing Cards, They Are Saving Lives Amongst Understaffing, Labor Rights Violations and Wage Theft
Last week there was national uproar in response to comments made by Washington’s Senator Walsh regarding nurses playing cards during work hours. She launched an attack on nurses that drew fire from not only nurses, but from just about every possible career field around the country. These highly offensive comments were in opposition to a bill in Washington state that would have required hospitals to provide nurses with actual breaks, something that most nurses across the country do not have, even though their pay is docked for it.
While many New Jerseyans might think that this is a Washington issue, I assure you it is not. For seventeen years New Jersey legislators from both political parties have failed to pass legislation that would ensure that there are safe numbers of patients assigned to nurses. The lack of staffing regulations in our own state leaves hospitals to set how many patients a nurse may care for, this has left patients in unsafe situations and is a contributing factor to avoidable medical errors which is currently the third leading cause of death in the United States.
In the event that a nurse decides they want to take a break, or needs to leave the unit, nurses cannot be certain that they are not putting their patients in harm’s way. Because of this, many nurses forgo their breaks, in order to protect their patients. Meanwhile, the facilities they work for commit wage theft against the nurses, charging them for the breaks they didn’t receive, while also violating labor laws. NJ Safe Ratios, a patient advocacy organization, has been researching the issues of chronic unsafe staffing in hospitals and nursing homes. Our data shows that 55.6% of nurses do not receive breaks, and 62.5% of those nurses are experiencing wage theft for the breaks they did not receive because they fear retaliation and being disciplined for clocking out that they did not receive their break. Only 4.2% of nurses reported they took breaks and a nurse was specifically assigned to their patients while they were off the unit, compared to 19.36% of nurses who took a break and a nurse who already had an assignment was required to pick up an additional assignment, just so the nurse could take a break.
Why is this issue avoided by legislators? For the past twenty years organizations like the Institute of Medicine have called for improvements to nurses’ work environments, supported by research that shows the more patients a nurse has the greater the chance patients die. In a landmark study that compared Pennsylvania and New Jersey hospitals to California hospitals, California implemented safe staffing laws in 2004, patients in New Jersey had a 13.9% greater chance of dying on medical surgical units, than if they were patients in California. With this knowledge it is frustrating to know that our legislators have failed to support and move the safe staffing legislation that has been introduced every legislative session for the past 17 years, as well as pressure the state’s hospitals to provide staff coverage so nurses can take breaks without putting patients as risk. NJ Safe Ratios has reached out via email, in person meetings and via direct mail to every legislator in the state, yet the most current bill has not moved for a committee vote. Are there conflicts of interest within the committees that are holding patient safety bills hostage? With the Assembly election season in full swing it is important for voters to ask candidates why only seventeen of the eighty Assembly members have supported this bill, Assembly bill A1470, and why only eight of the forty Senate members have supported Senate bill S989. Patient safety should have full bipartisan support, sadly, not one Republican lawmaker has sponsored these bills.
Kate McLaughlin, BSN, RN
Executive Director
NJ Safe Ratios
Assembly Sponsors of A1470
Benson, Daniel R. as Primary Sponsor
Murphy, Carol A. as Primary Sponsor
Jimenez, Angelica M. as Co-Sponsor
Jasey, Mila M. as Co-Sponsor
Danielsen, Joe as Co-Sponsor
Giblin, Thomas P. as Co-Sponsor
Zwicker, Andrew as Co-Sponsor
McKnight, Angela V. as Co-Sponsor
Downey, Joann as Co-Sponsor
Houghtaling, Eric as Co-Sponsor
Carter, Linda S. as Co-Sponsor
DeAngelo, Wayne P. as Co-Sponsor
Lopez, Yvonne as Co-Sponsor
Vainieri Huttle, Valerie as Co-Sponsor
Mosquera, Gabriela M. as Co-Sponsor
Speight, Shanique as Co-Sponsor
Reynolds-Jackson, Verlina as Co-Sponsor
__________________________________________________________
Nurses Are Not Playing Cards, They Are Saving Lives Amongst Understaffing, Labor Rights Violations and Wage Theft
Last week there was national uproar in response to comments made by Washington’s Senator Walsh regarding nurses playing cards during work hours. She launched an attack on nurses that drew fire from not only nurses, but from just about every possible career field around the country. These highly offensive comments were in opposition to a bill in Washington state that would have required hospitals to provide nurses with actual breaks, something that most nurses across the country do not have, even though their pay is docked for it.
While many New Jerseyans might think that this is a Washington issue, I assure you it is not. For seventeen years New Jersey legislators from both political parties have failed to pass legislation that would ensure that there are safe numbers of patients assigned to nurses. The lack of staffing regulations in our own state leaves hospitals to set how many patients a nurse may care for, this has left patients in unsafe situations and is a contributing factor to avoidable medical errors which is currently the third leading cause of death in the United States.
In the event that a nurse decides they want to take a break, or needs to leave the unit, nurses cannot be certain that they are not putting their patients in harm’s way. Because of this, many nurses forgo their breaks, in order to protect their patients. Meanwhile, the facilities they work for commit wage theft against the nurses, charging them for the breaks they didn’t receive, while also violating labor laws. NJ Safe Ratios, a patient advocacy organization, has been researching the issues of chronic unsafe staffing in hospitals and nursing homes. Our data shows that 55.6% of nurses do not receive breaks, and 62.5% of those nurses are experiencing wage theft for the breaks they did not receive because they fear retaliation and being disciplined for clocking out that they did not receive their break. Only 4.2% of nurses reported they took breaks and a nurse was specifically assigned to their patients while they were off the unit, compared to 19.36% of nurses who took a break and a nurse who already had an assignment was required to pick up an additional assignment, just so the nurse could take a break.
Why is this issue avoided by legislators? For the past twenty years organizations like the Institute of Medicine have called for improvements to nurses’ work environments, supported by research that shows the more patients a nurse has the greater the chance patients die. In a landmark study that compared Pennsylvania and New Jersey hospitals to California hospitals, California implemented safe staffing laws in 2004, patients in New Jersey had a 13.9% greater chance of dying on medical surgical units, than if they were patients in California. With this knowledge it is frustrating to know that our legislators have failed to support and move the safe staffing legislation that has been introduced every legislative session for the past 17 years, as well as pressure the state’s hospitals to provide staff coverage so nurses can take breaks without putting patients as risk. NJ Safe Ratios has reached out via email, in person meetings and via direct mail to every legislator in the state, yet the most current bill has not moved for a committee vote. Are there conflicts of interest within the committees that are holding patient safety bills hostage? With the Assembly election season in full swing it is important for voters to ask candidates why only seventeen of the eighty Assembly members have supported this bill, Assembly bill A1470, and why only eight of the forty Senate members have supported Senate bill S989. Patient safety should have full bipartisan support, sadly, not one Republican lawmaker has sponsored these bills.
Kate McLaughlin, BSN, RN
Executive Director
NJ Safe Ratios
Assembly Sponsors of A1470
Benson, Daniel R. as Primary Sponsor
Murphy, Carol A. as Primary Sponsor
Jimenez, Angelica M. as Co-Sponsor
Jasey, Mila M. as Co-Sponsor
Danielsen, Joe as Co-Sponsor
Giblin, Thomas P. as Co-Sponsor
Zwicker, Andrew as Co-Sponsor
McKnight, Angela V. as Co-Sponsor
Downey, Joann as Co-Sponsor
Houghtaling, Eric as Co-Sponsor
Carter, Linda S. as Co-Sponsor
DeAngelo, Wayne P. as Co-Sponsor
Lopez, Yvonne as Co-Sponsor
Vainieri Huttle, Valerie as Co-Sponsor
Mosquera, Gabriela M. as Co-Sponsor
Speight, Shanique as Co-Sponsor
Reynolds-Jackson, Verlina as Co-Sponsor
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