Mary Holbrook, MNA
517.349.5640, ext. 221
517.230.4086 (cell), mary.holbrook@minurses.org

February 17, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TOWN HALL MEETING PROVIDES DISTURBING LOOK AT PATIENT SAFETY IN MICHIGAN HOSPITALS

Kalamazoo, MI – A tightly-packed Town Hall meeting with Representative Robert Jones (D-60) provided a disturbing view of what is passing for safe patient care in Michigan hospitals. Nurses from around the area told of the dangers that exist from having too few nurses on the floor to take care of the patients and stressed the need for HB 4008, the Safe Patient Care legislation.

“The idea behind HB 4008,” said Ken Fletcher, Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) Director of Governmental Affairs and Outreach, “is that hospitals must have a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio for each department that guarantees there will be enough nurses for the number of admitted patients. Michigan hospitals are stating that they’re doing this on their own but that doesn’t match with the overwhelming evidence that nurses can be taking care of up to 12 patients by themselves and working back-to-back shifts. We are putting Michigan citizens in hospitals that compromise their care. This practice must stop.”

Nurse after nurse shared their testimonies about working with too few nurses:

· “How some patients make it through the night – alive – it’s a miracle,” said Chris Sherlock, a medical/surgical nurse.

· “I’ve seen people break down and cry at their jobs because they can’t do the job they want to do,” said Karen Mitchell, a medical/surgical nurse.

· “There’s nothing more insulting than having a supervisor tell you, ‘Just do the best you can,’” said Emily Fredrickson, a post-surgical nurse, referring to the response she received when she protested the short staffing on her unit.

· “We have patients that I’m begging the family members, who are exhausted, to stay so that their family member is safe,” said Theresa Cabras, an oncology nurse. “I don’t want to do that. But I have to. We are told we can do this [work with low staffing], we just have to be better time managers. I haven’t figured that out. I don’t know how to be in more than one room at once.”

· “I go home crying, many, many, many days,” said Kari Kitsmiller, a medical/surgical nurse. “I don’t go home crying because of my 12 hour shift. I don’t go home crying because of the tasks I have to do. I go home crying because I worry that I’m potentially harming somebody for not being adequately able to take care of them or the medication errors or all the running around we have to do. It’s not safe . . . We go home crying when we know we’re not doing what we need to be doing.”

Nurses told stories of being assaulted by a patient with too few staff to assist in their defense. Several nurses shared stories of patients who were ashamed to admit they wet the bed because a nurse couldn’t get to them in time to help them to the bathroom. One nurse told of a scared new patient receiving her first chemotherapy treatment and rather than comforting her and explaining the symptoms she was having, the nurse left her to go deal with three patients who kept falling on the floor because there was not enough equipment to help safely keep the patients in their beds. One nurse shared that she had made a highly dangerous medicine error because she was working mandated overtime and short staffed. Research done by a nurse in support of safe patient staffing ratios and the benefits they would provide was met with rejection and the instruction to “suck it up.”

“I am speechless,” said Rep. Jones. “I am tremendously impressed that what I’ve heard consistently is that basically what you want is to be able to do a good job and give the patients the service they deserve. You really do care from the bottom of your heart that when things are not right, it affects you.

“I must say this is quite an education for me. I was under the impression that there was some form of minimal staffing. There is a tremendous need to make sure that not only for the hospitals but for everyone involved in this community that patients in the hospital get the best care and that there is enough staffing there so that patients have the best care.”

“I am deeply moved.”

“It’s very simple,” stated Jeff Breslin, Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) President. “If you don’t have enough nurses to provide direct care for the patients that have been admitted to the hospital, safe patient care is going to be the first casualty. The patients in the hospitals are sicker than the patients we used to see. They’ve been admitted for around-the-clock nursing care. If there aren’t enough nurses, that care is compromised.”

Fletcher explained that HB 4008 will also eliminate the use of mandatory overtime as a staffing solution. “Putting exhausted nurses into a unit that is already short staffed is lighting a match in a room full of dynamite. It is just one more method of compromising patient care.”

The Michigan Nurses Association is the largest, most effective union for RNs in Michigan. As the voice of all registered nurses in Michigan, MNA advocates for nurses and their patients at the State Capitol, in the community and at the bargaining table.  MNA is a constituent member of the National Nurses United (NNU) and an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.