Some bills are being introduced in the Michigan Legislature to keep patients safe in Michigan hospitals and build a strong nursing workforce. A critical care nurse at Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, Jamie Brown, says she often has to take care of three patients when it should only be one and that’s not a unique situation at hospitals in Michigan.
“42% of nurses polled say that they know of a patient’s death caused by a hospital’s unsafe staffing levels,” Brown said.
The bills being announced would would set limits on the number of patients nurses can be assigned, curb excessive mandatory nurse overtime, and require hospitals to disclose their actual staffing levels.
