Nurse Staffing

* Dorel Harms (letter, July 25) cites the Institute of Medicine to justify the campaign by the hospital industry opposing AB 394, which requires minimum hospital nurse-to-patient ratios. The IOM panel did not include hands-on caregivers and relied heavily on the views of health care industry representatives and consultants. Most nurses and organizations that testified about unsafe patient-care ratios were appalled by the findings. Recent studies reaffirm a direct link between safe nurse staffing levels and complications like urinary tract infection and pneumonia. Appropriate nursing care is now seen as a significant predictor of mortality.

California’s nursing shortage is largely the result of a decade of hospital downsizing and voluntary departures by many nurses who can no longer accept intolerable conditions. AB 394 would reverse this exodus, along with other bills sponsored by the California Nurses Assn., to increase educational slots for nursing students, provide scholarships and create programs to prepare generalist nurses for specialty care. Many hospitals meet the ratios in AB 394. For those that don’t, there must be a minimum floor to protect an unsuspecting public.

KIT COSTELLO RN

President, California Nurses Assn.

Sacramento