Imagine this scenario: A hospital is facing a surge of patients, and a new patient is in need of emergency care. However, as a result of a nationwide nursing shortage (exacerbated here in California due to a statewide mandate requiring nurses to be vaccinated) and the need for the hospital to meet certain staffing-to-patient ratio requirements, the hospital cannot accept the new patient.
We have been closer to this nightmare scenario than anybody thinks. With nursing shortages both locally and throughout the country, nurse staffing ratio waivers are a critical part to protecting the public health and ensuring our hospital systems can continue to accept patients. Gov. Newsom readily waived them at the beginning of the pandemic, and if hospitals are at risk of turning away patients, he should be ready and willing to waive them again in the future.
If you were the patient in the hypothetical scenario above, would you care if the nurse taking care of you has to look after five patients, instead of four? I know I wouldn’t give a damn.
Adrienne Hawkinson
Atascadero
