Dive Brief:
- Last week, The Leapfrog Group released a report saying that 40% of its Hospital Survey respondents did not comply with all 21 endorsed safe practices related to nursing workforce.
- The report says that although hospitals are making improvements, more progress is needed to attain Leapfrog's standard for nursing, which is based on the National Quality Forum (NQF)-endorsed safe practices on nursing workforce.
- Although the percentage of hospitals that achieved full compliance grew from 52% in 2013 to 60% in 2014, two in five reporting hospitals did not fully meet Leapfrog standards. However, those achieving Magnet Status increased from 15.5% to 16% .
Dive Insight:
The study was released amid recent nursing strikes and demonstrations over patient safety issues. Last week, nurses rallied in DC to urge the District of Columbia Council to pass legislation mandating minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in all DC hospitals.
That same day, nurses also demonstrated outside the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and delivered a petition to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald, demanding respect for nurses' rights in all VA hospitals. "The VA is spending [a] half billion dollars to track RNs, but doesn't have enough money to meet its own staffing guidelines for both inpatient and outpatient veterans," said Irma Westmoreland, RN, chair of Veterans Affairs for NNU.
Hospitals would do well to sit down with nurse leaders and open a dialogue about nursing workforce safety issues. Seeing how your hospital rates on compliance with the NQF-endorsed safe practices on nursing workforce might be a good starting point.
Want to read more? You may want to read this feature on setting an appropriate nurse-patient ratio.