Safe Staffing Newsletter #2
HPAE Leads Push by Healthcare Workers to Pass Law to Enforce Staffing Ratios in Hospitals
A coalition of unionized nurses and healthcare workers joined HPAE President Debbie White in Trenton to announce they will hold a Rally for Safe Staffing on May 11. Hundreds will come to Trenton to urge passage of NJ-S304, a bill mandating enforceable staffing levels in hospitals.
“Our healthcare system is in crisis as we continue to lose dedicated healthcare professionals to burnout and stress. For years we have been talking about safe staffing because we have witnessed firsthand the deliberate understaffing of our healthcare institutions by hospital and healthcare corporations that cut staffing down to its lowest number to maximize profits. Many who left the field prior to the pandemic did so because the work environment was untenable,” Debbie White said.
HPAE Releases a Study on How Understaffing in New Jersey Hospitals is Imperiling Healthcare
HPAE released a new position paper, “CODE RED: Understaffed. Overworked. Unsafe for Everyone. The Urgent need for Safe Staffing Legislation in New Jersey.”
The report states: “Hospitals will argue they need flexibility, and call staffing ratios ‘one size fits all’. Nurses will tell you hospitals already use a staffing ‘matrix’, but too often the numbers are based on budgets, and who is available, rather than what patients need. In addition, the ratios HPAE proposes follow national nurse practice guidelines, for example, in ICU, and post-operative recovery care.”
Get on the Bus! for HPAE’s Safe Staffing Saves Healthcare May 11th Rally in Trenton
It’s time our voices are heard. Join us at the Safe Staffing Rally on May 11 where will tell lawmakers we have had enough. We are standing together—workers, patients, community members and advocates.
Bus Transportation provided for a $25.00 Refundable Fee (When you get on the bus, you will be reimbursed). Reserve your seat on a bus. Details on bus locations will be emailed before the event. Don’t be left out! Register by May 9th.
Tell Us Your Stories, Your Experiences Working in a Staffing Crisis
HPAE is launching a statewide campaign to inform lawmakers and the public of what healthcare workers face every day on the job. We need to hear from healthcare workers whose stories and experiences in healthcare can help to urge lawmakers to pass safe staffing legislation that will help keep workers and patients safe. Click here to share your story.
In the News . . .
New Jersey Monitor: Advocates urge lawmakers to mandate minimum nurse staffing at hospitals
Insider NJ: Now or Never: NJ Nurses and NJ AFL-CIO Issue Code Red
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