LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Jamie Brown is a nurse, and the president of the Michigan Nurses Association. Brown is no stranger to hearing the horror stories of being a nurse.
“There was patient that had to get up to the bathroom, and the nurse was in another room taking care of her other patient… They cause themselves injury, if they had the nurses at the bedside we would be able to have prevented that,” said Brown.
Brown is urging lawmakers to pass the Safe Patient Care Act, the which will limit the number of patients assigned to a nurse, limit the number of hours a nurse can work and make the nurse to patient ratio public.
But the Michigan Health Hospital Association says a government-mandated staff ratio won’t work for the complexity of patient care and diverse health environments.
“Studies have shown that nurse education and training rather than a one-size-fits-all approach like mandatory nurse staffing ratios are the most important factors when it comes to ensuring the delivery of high-quality patient care.”
Brown believes the legislation would help address the nursing shortage.
“If we had a minimum patient requirements in law then I think a lot of nurses would come back to the bedside.”
Representative Julie Brixie is in support of the bill,
“We have heard repeatedly from nurses that we need to work on this and find a fix for this problem,” said Brixie.
Brown’s ultimate message to lawmakers?
“If they want to truly show that they value us as heroes then this would be a great way to put the action behind their words.”
