How Ohio laws would improve working conditions for nurses
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Nurses are facing a crisis with staffing shortages disrupting healthcare nationwide, but the union representing nurses in Ohio prefers to describe this problem not as a nursing shortage, but as a crisis of chronic understaffing.
Kelli Hykes of the Ohio Nurses Association said understaffing is a conscious decision by healthcare facilities.
“We have plenty of licensed professionals in the state of Ohio to fulfill the needs that we have,” Hykes said. “We do not have plenty of people that are willing to work under the conditions that we have right now.”
On Thursday, the ONA released a new survey showing that more than 68% of Ohio nurses report experiencing some form of workplace violence in the past year. More than 91% report that the healthcare facilities where they work are consistently understaffed.
Also on Thursday, the ONA hosted panel discussions with several state lawmakers from both parties to discuss legislation to improve working conditions. House Bill 521, sponsored by Ohio Reps. Crystal Lett (D-Columbus) and Christine Cockley (D-Columbus), would require hospitals to adopt specific nurse-to-patient ratios, appropriate for every hospital unit. House Bill 535, sponsored by Rep. Brian Lorenz (R-Powell), would give nurses more say in hospital staffing plans.
“This is a crisis that I live personally, I have a kiddo with pretty intense medical complexities,” Lett said. “I have seen this firsthand play out what it looks like when hospitals are chronically understaffed. It’s not acceptable, it’s not good for the nurses, it’s not good for the healthcare system at large, and it, in particular, is bad for patients.”
Cockley said the ratio requirements in H.B. 521 would ensure a manageable workload and prevent burnout among nurses.
“If a nurse shows up and they are stretched thin because there’s too many clients and not enough staff or nurses, if they’re not getting the support that they need, it then is going to negatively impact the patients and it becomes a safety issue for everybody,” Cockley said.
Lorenz said the state needs to define what qualifies as an “emergency” warranting a disruption of appropriate staffing levels.
“Let’s have some validity around what’s an emergency,” Lorenz said. “Was COVID an emergency? Sure. Is a snow day an emergency? Maybe not. Let’s have some regularly agreed-upon standards that are enforceable and that are tangible and that make sense to everybody.”
With Ohio facing both a mental health crisis and an aging population, lawmakers agree the state needs nurses now more than ever.
“We want to show our future generation of workers, so our kids that are in high school and thinking about a healthcare career that, ‘Hey, this is a career that I can get into where I’m going to be valued, my input’s going to be important,’” Lorenz said. “Driving that is really going to help influence this next generation of workers to want to come into this industry, and we’re going to need it.”
H.B. 521 and H.B. 535 are both in the House Health Committee, with H.B. 521 still awaiting its first hearing.