POLICY

Fix nurse and health care worker staffing #

We need enforce­able minimum safe staffing standards to allow nurses to do their jobs safely and give patients the care they deserve.

In 2008 and 2017, we asked the Legis­la­ture to take concrete steps to fix nurse staffing in our state’s hospi­tals. Those laws haven’t done enough to address safe staffing and lack the enforce­ment mecha­nisms needed to compel hospi­tals to adhere to current laws. Washington has faced a shortage of nurses and health care workers for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic put longstanding problems in a pressure cooker, and we’re now at a crisis point. Hospi­tals in Washington state and around the country are seeing a mass exodus of nurses due to high burnout rates. As more nurses leave the workforce, those remaining are being pushed to their limits. Nurses in critical care units, once respon­sible for no more than two patients at a time, are now tasked with managing as many as five to six patients — compro­mising care to unsafe levels.

Bill Summary: HB 1868 / SB 5751 (PDF)

Staffing laws enforcement #

The past two years have made clear we need to increase enforce­ment of current laws designed to protect nurses.

Nurses and health care workers made substan­tial gains when the Legis­la­ture updated the nurse staffing law in 2017, and when the Legis­la­ture passed meal and rest break and manda­tory overtime protec­tions in 2019 — yet many hospi­tals are not following those laws. WSNA and individual nurses have filed dozens of complaints with state agencies that lack the resources and enforce­ment mecha­nisms to hold hospi­tals account­able. When enforce­ment resources are low and the penalty is paltry, hospi­tals are unlikely to change or adjust their behavior — resulting in working condi­tions that drive nurses to quit.

BUDGET

Invest in nursing schools #

While we must fix nursing jobs to retain current staff, a strong educa­tion pipeline is crucial to ensuring we have the nursing workforce we need.

In 2019, the Legis­la­ture made a $40 million invest­ment in commu­nity and technical colleges to increase reten­tion and recruit­ment of nursing faculty. That invest­ment resulted in stronger recruit­ment, additional nurse educator positions and new student slots in our state’s commu­nity and technical college nursing schools. As nurse staffing hits critical lows, the Legis­la­ture must continue to invest in expanding and strength­ening the pathway for new nurses to enter the workforce and for current nurses to obtain graduate degrees to teach. We must take steps to diver­sify our workforce by investing in the schools that graduate more diverse nurses. Students also need adequate supports, such as child care and tutoring. The Legis­la­ture must also take steps to break the bottle­neck currently caused by lack of clinical place­ments for nursing students.

Invest in school nurses #

With school in full swing, the Legis­la­ture must also continue to invest in school nurses.

COVID-19 response has dramat­i­cally increased workloads for school nurses, some of whom spend less than one day per week in a school building. Kids are coming back to in-person school sicker with chronic condi­tions that were not managed during remote learning, and many more are strug­gling with mental health and behav­ioral health challenges due to the pandemic. We must invest in school nurses who support students’ chronic condi­tions, triage mental health challenges, and who are respon­sible for COVID-19 preven­tion and response.