Safe Staffing Saves Lives - ANA Safe Nurse Staffing Action and Information

Safe Staffing Saves Lives is a national campaign launched by the ANA to help fight for safe nurse staffing legislation. We need your help to make it a reality. Use the tools and resources on this site to get the facts and become an advocate for safe staffing.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) believes nurse staffing ratios need to be required by legislation - but the number itself must be set at the unit level with RN input, rather than by the terms of the legislation.

Different approaches to assure sufficient nurse staffing have been proposed.

• Nurse staffing plans: with input from practicing nurses, to assure safe nurse staffing levels are based on patient need and other criteria.
• Fixed mandated ratios: a number set by legislation or regulation.
• Combination of nurse staffing plans and legislated nurse to patient ratio: Enhancing these approaches can include a provision for making staffing information available to the public.

ANA's proposal is not a "one size fits all" approach to staffing. Instead, it tailors nurse staffing to the specific needs of each unit, based on factors including patient acuity, the experience of the nursing staff, the skill mix of the staff, available technology, and the support services available to the nurses. Most importantly, this approach treats nurses as professionals and empowers them at last to have a decision-making role in the care they provide.

Recent studies have demonstrated what most health care consumers already know: nursing care and quality patient care are inextricably linked. Massive reductions in nursing budgets, combined with the challenges presented by a growing nursing shortage have resulted in fewer nurses working longer hours and caring for sicker patients. This situation compromises care and contributes to the nursing shortage by creating an environment that drives nurses from the bedside.