Author Suzanne Gordon speaks about safe staffing in hospitals

 "Safety in Numbers" author Suzanne Gordon spoke to SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members in Spokane and Seattle about the benefits and effectiveness of staffing ratios in California and the state of Victoria in Australia, the two places where RN staffing levels have been mandated the longest. Gordon discussed how hospital cost cutting and layoffs in the 1990s created larger workloads and deteriorating conditions for both nurses and their patients – leading nursing organizations to embrace staffing level regulation. 

We have a plan to win safe staffing in our hospitals - more than 4,000 SEIU Healthcare 1199NW nurses will be bargaining this spring to strengthen staffing contract language. Nurses from Seattle-area hospitals discussed bargaining proposals as part of a panel discussion at the safe staffing event with Suzanne Gordon.

Gordon’s new book, Safety in Numbers is the first book to examine the arguments for and against ratios. It concludes that nurse-to-patient staffing ratios can dramatically improve patients’ health and safety by giving nurses more time to monitor patients’ status and pain, assist in their recovery, and educate them prior to discharge. Gordon’s book also shows that ratios improve nurse retention and recruitment rates – key elements that are needed to end the nurse staffing crisis that many hospitals face today.

Facts about Nurse-to-Patient Ratios:
• Three countries in the world have currently legislated or regulated safe nurse-to-patient ratios: Japan, the state of Victoria in Australia, and the state of California in the U.S.
• Studies show a clear link between high patient loads and patient mortality. One study shows that more patients are suffering from preventable complications like urinary tract infections, falls, bedsores, pneumonias and medication errors, all due to insufficient nurse availability.
• Nurse-to-patient ratios in California have led to greater job satisfaction, less burnout and higher retention rates. This success has led many nurses from other states to relocate to California. In Victoria, Australia nurse-to-patient ratios have brought 7,000 inactive nurses back into the workforce and alleviated the nursing shortage in that state.

View photos from the Spokane and Seattle events with Suzanne

Purchase Suzanne's new book, "Safety in Numbers"