Covid
Staffing?

March 1, 2021 -- A perennially hot topic in nursing is staffing ratios: for how many patients does a nurse care at one time? It is well-proven that keeping these low saves lives. California alone in the nation legislated nurse staffing ratios with Assembly Bill AB394 in 1999. (Hospitals opposed it because payroll -- specifically nursing payroll -- is their highest-cost budget line item.)

Several factors must be considered, mainly the acuity of the patients' conditions and the type of nursing unit. For example, the level of care required in an ICU is much higher than in med/surg. And, of course, when there is a pandemic everything is impacted.

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