American Nurses Association (ANA) Calls for Staffing Solutions

The ANA is urging congressional leaders, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other key stakeholders to “advance efforts in the implementation of safe staffing standards, including minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.”

“ANA supports minimum nurse-to-patient ratios enacted by nurse-centered committees dependent upon key factors such as patient acuity, intensity of the unit practice setting, and nurses’ competency among other variables.

According to the American Nurses Foundation’s national workplace survey of nurses, “31% of nurses are required on a weekly basis to work beyond their scheduled shift to provide adequate care to patients.” NCSBN reports that, “a quarter to half of nurses reported feeling emotionally drained (50.8%), used up (56.4%), fatigued (49.7%), burned out (45.1%), or at the end of the rope (29.4%) ‘a few times a week’ or ‘every day.’”

ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, stated, “ANA’s goal is to empower nurses and position them for success. Embracing setting specific ratios for nurses should be viewed as only one piece of a much larger solution. We’re still working to address other longstanding workforce challenges that have dramatically worsened the nurses staffing crisis such as burnout, workplace violence, mandatory overtime and barriers to full practice authority.”