Why This Emergency Nurse is Voting NO on #1

I am an Emergency Department nurse and I am voting NO on #1. I can’t support a bill that will limit access to quality patient care. If passed, this law would prevent nurses from treating an additional patient once a certain ratio is reached, no matter their medical condition. This law undermines nurses’ judgement and ability to assess patients’ medical conditions, which is vital to saving peoples’ lives.

If every on-duty nurse is at their patient ratio and a heart attack victim comes in, we cannot legally take that patient, or we risk a $25,000 fine. Do we violate the law to take care of that patient or make them wait until a nurse is available? I hope no patient or nurse ever has to be in that position. Today, if my ED is busy and a patient requires immediate attention, they are quickly seen by a highly qualified nurse. We work as a TEAM to accommodate the constantly shifting number of patients and their level of medical distress. In nursing, we need constant flexibility, not a rigid ratio. There is not an ED in the world that can plan for ratios, because in an ED, we never know who is coming in the door next.

“If you hire more nurses, there will be less ED wait times.” FALSE. Patients will need to wait if nurses are at ratio. Also, where will all of these additional nurses come from? The law would take effect on January 1st, leaving little time to hire and train thousands of nurses. I have heard, “Nurses who left the profession will come back.” Even if nurses who left came back, they won’t be ready to hit the ground running. These nurses are untrained in the latest processes and life-saving equipment that patients need to stay alive in an ED. “Hire new graduate nurses.” All new nurses need an extensive orientation, which cannot be done quickly. If hospitals were to hire these nurses, they would simply be filling positions to meet a mandate – which would result in unsafe patient care – putting lives at severe risk. Would you want your loved one in an ED to be treated by an untrained nurse?

Consider the ramifications of this bill and join me in voting NO on #1.

Kim O’Quinn
Emergency Department Nurse
Emerson Hospital
Waltham resident