Bill to lower nurse-to-patient ratio met with mixed response

LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – Michigan is no stranger to the shortage of nurses plaguing the country.  

One state senator has aimed to fix it, but her legislation is being met with a mixed response. 

“Far too often what has happened in the past, especially we’ve seen prior to COVID and beyond, is that nurses have been overworked, and so they can’t provide the quality of care necessary to help support those who are in need of care,” said State Sen. Sylvia Santana who introduced the bill. 

An additional goal, she told CBS News Detroit, is to lessen the load on Michigan nurses and maybe even entice some to come back to the profession. 

“Essentially, this bill would lower the patient-to-nurse ratios for several different crucial areas of health health care in the hospitals,” she said. “Right now. we have 50,000 nurses in the state of Michigan who are not currently working in the hospitals. Hopefully, with putting these ratios in place, that will help to bring some of those individuals back.”

But Kim Meeker, president of the Michigan Organization of Nurse Leaders, says her organization and the Michigan Health and Hospital Association aren’t in support of the bill. 

“Our stance is that we absolutely believe in safe staffing,” Meeker said. “But the tool that is being proposed on mandated ratios is not the right tool to correct the problem.”

Meeker said the shortage of nurses in Michigan is a complicated issue and one that requires different ratios for urban and rural hospitals and even different ratios based on the type and intensity of care. 

“To distill the issue down to mandated legislated ratios really doesn’t take into consideration the full complexity of nursing care and patient care,” she said. 

Requiring more nurses per patient could have a financial impact on hospitals as well. 

“[But] It’s much less about the bottom line is as it is about the unintended consequences to access to care,” she said.

The Michigan Health and Hospital Association agreed, saying in a statement that the bill has the potential to “severely harm hospitals and access to important services for patients.”