Nurses and their unions will take another shot at a safe staffing requirement from Olympia this session.
After failing to pass last session, this bill would set a standard for nurse-to-patient ratios, and what’s new is moving the rule making from the Department of Health to the Department of Labor and Industries so all sides can weigh in and a phase-in period to give rural and critical access hospitals more time to comply.
Washington State Nurses Association director, David Keepnews, says they’re giving safe staffing standards another try in the legislature because it’s the one policy workers say would reduce burnout. “We know from research on California,” Keepnews says, “that safe staffing standards increase job satisfaction, which is key to not only getting more nurses and health care workers at the bedside but keeping them there.
Washington Hospitals say they lost close to $2 billion in just the first half of last year and that this requirement wouldn’t result in more nurses but fewer because it would force them to cut patient services. Nurses say that’s happening now and will only get worse without a fix.
