Rn Safe Staffing Act

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Critique of Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act Critique of Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act The bill I chose to critique was cited in the 112th Congress as the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2011. This bill was introduced into the House of Representatives (H.R.) on March 2, 2011 as bill number 876. This same bill was also introduced into the Senate (S.) of the United States on January 25th, 2011 as bill number 58. The bill has not yet been passed by either committee. The purpose of the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act (H.R. 876/S.58, 2011) is to provide better protection for patients at certain Medicare providers by creating safe nurse staffing levels. This bill was proposed for multiple reasons. One being that congress has found that multiple hospitals throughout the United States do not have enough staff to safely and adequately care for patients. They also found that the research shows patient safety is directly related to the amount of registered nurses (RNs) working. If staffing is adequate, there is a decrease in negative patient outcomes such as falls, medication errors, infection, and even death. Overall, inadequate staffing forces nurses to perform in an environment that does not support quality health care (H.R. 876/S.58, 2011). The stipulations of the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act (H.R. 876/S.58, 2011) are that each participating hospital must implement a safe staffing plan for RNs hospital wide. The bill states that this plan shall be developed by a committee consisting of at least 55 percent of the hospitals RNs and must also include hospital nurse managers, one nurse from each specialty unit, and other hospital personnel as deemed necessary. The plan must require that there are a certain number of RNs on each unit during each shift to provide safe care. This plan must also address the individual needs of the patients and

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