Unions: NJ must force hospitals to hire more nurses, or more will keep quitting

Michael L. Diamond, Asbury Park Press
·3 min read
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TRENTON - With nurses leaving the hospital bedside in droves, New Jersey should require health facilities to maintain minimum staffing levels to ease burnout and bolster morale, a coalition of labor unions said Monday.

Mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios not only would help hospitals retain nurses, but also would improve care and cut down on unnecessary costs associated with poor quality, the unions said.

"Our health care system is in crisis as we continue to lose dedicated health care professionals to burnout and stress," said Debbie White, president of the Health Professional & Allied Employees union, which has 14,000 members. "The No. 1 reason nurses are leaving hospitals is because of poor staffing."

White and other union leaders spoke at the State House to call attention to a bill, languishing in the Legislature, that would create more staffing standards for hospitals and surgery centers. Union officials are planning a rally on May 11 to press their case further.

Debbie White, president of the Health Professionals & Allied Employees, calls for the New Jersey Legislature to pass a bill that would establish minimum nurse staffing ratios at hospitals.
Debbie White, president of the Health Professionals & Allied Employees, calls for the New Jersey Legislature to pass a bill that would establish minimum nurse staffing ratios at hospitals.

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The campaign comes as industries from education to trucking scramble to fill openings due in part to a demographic shift led by the retirement of the huge baby boomer generation.

The health care industry is particularly squeezed. For that field, the aging population means not only fewer workers, but also more patients. Meanwhile, they are under pressure from the government and private insurers to deliver care more affordably.

Nurses said the combination has created a workload that is untenable. A recent statewide survey by HPAE found:

  • About 30% of nurses have left hospitals the past three years.

  • Of those remaining, 72% said they have recently considered leaving.

  • And 95% of nurses with five or fewer years of experience are considering leaving.

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Sheryl Mount, HPAE Local 5105 president and a nurse for 39 years, (right) says hospital morale is at a low point and urged lawmakers to mandate staffing guidelines.
Sheryl Mount, HPAE Local 5105 president and a nurse for 39 years, (right) says hospital morale is at a low point and urged lawmakers to mandate staffing guidelines.

"The morale at the hospital is the worst I've seen," said Sheryl Mount of Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly and president of HPAE Local 5105, who has been a nurse for 39 years. "The only way we're going to save our profession and take care of patients the way we're trained to is to join together and come here and try to get this bill passed."

To shore up staffing, union officials are supporting a bill that would mandate staffing levels, ranging from one nurse for each patient under anesthesia in the operating room to one nurse for every five patients in a behavioral health unit.

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It isn't clear how many nurses would need to be hired to reach the mandates set out by the proposed bill.

The New Jersey Hospital Association, a trade group, said mandatory ratios would remove the flexibility hospitals need to treat their patients.

"The last three years have taught us that nurses, and teams of other experienced health care professionals, need flexibility to use their clinical expertise to make the best decisions for their patients," said Cathy Bennett, the group's president and chief executive officer. "Determining adequate nurse staffing is complex. It changes on a shift-by-shift basis and is based on patient acuity and turnover, availability of support staff and skill mix, and the setting of care.”

White, however, said her members cite poor staffing as the top reason they are leaving. And a mandate requiring minimum levels would be the first step to reverse the slide.

Hospitals "need to build an environment so that nurses will stay, so that we don't have a bucket with holes that causes an influx and an outpouring of those nurses," White said. "The problem right now is as we recruit nurses, they leave at the same rate. Nurses will stay when we have safe nurse-to-patient ratios."

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Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ nurses union want hospital minimum staffing law to fight burnout