SANTA FE, N.M. — Dozens of nurses and medical staff protested exterior the Roundhouse Friday morning. They’re demanding higher staffing situations inside hospitals, and state lawmakers are working to make that doable.
A nonprofit well being care group lately ranked New Mexico forty fourth within the nation for affected person security – virtually 10 spots decrease than in 2019. Albuquerque Rep. Eleanor Chavez is hoping to alter that, by mandating what number of sufferers nurses are assigned to a single shift.
There’s no nationwide normal for staff-to-patient ratios, however most consultants agree emergency room and ICU nurses ought to solely deal with one or two sufferers. Nurses in much less intense departments can reportedly deal with as much as 4 or 5 sufferers. Chavez says nurses in New Mexico are sometimes dealing with far more than that.
“For instance, in a new child ICU unit, nurses had been being informed that they had been going to be taking 4 infants, 4 infants isn’t secure, particularly once they’re in an ICU,” Chavez mentioned. “Two infants may be secure. You understand, in some conditions, one child may be secure.”
A current examine printed within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation discovered the chances of a affected person loss of life enhance by 7% for every further affected person a nurse is assigned to. Rep. Chavez famous the elevated workload can also be pushing extra nurses to stop, which results in much more staffing points. Supporters mentioned a invoice like that is lengthy overdue.
“Different industries, like flight attendants, they’ve a set variety of people who they’ll have on a aircraft, they usually have a set variety of hours they’ll work, and we don’t even have that fundamental necessity,” mentioned Adrianna Enghouse with United Well being Care Professionals of New Mexico.
Chavez’s invoice was formally launched throughout Friday’s Home session. She mentioned it is going to be as much as the state’s Division of Well being and native well being care consultants to find out the perfect staff-to-patient ratios.
