What are the important thing concerns in nursing contract negotiations at Magee?
A significant concern pertains to nurse staffing, and specifically Nurse to patient ratio. Other issues Measures include wages, health advantages, parental and sick leave, working hours and measures to cut back workplace violence. Magee is one among Pittsburgh's largest labor and delivery and neonatal centers, and nurses there say they're coping with what they describe as an “unsafe patient load.”
Maggie nurses held a news conference. Advocate for spending more time along with your patients by establishing a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio in January 2026. The principal issue that nurses want to deal with of their first collective bargaining agreement is the limit on what number of patients a nurse might be assigned per shift. If Magee's advice were to be followed Industry standards set by the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.this shall be a nurse assigned to every patient in energetic labor.
AP Photo/Jane J Poskar
Is there evidence linking nursing staffing levels to patient outcomes similar to mortality, infections or readmissions?
The short answer is yes. There is general agreement that “safe” nursing staffing levels are related to this. Better patient outcomesbut what constitutes a superbly protected crew. is less clear.
These ratios are frequently based on each the variety of patients and the patient's well-being for a nurse's workload – a measure of how much time a nurse must spend with a patient. Relevant patient aspects include case severity and want for medication or other interventions, patient mobility and standing as a brand new admission or near discharge. Factors similar to a nurse's experience level and floor layout will also be considered in measuring acuity. For example, a nurse needs more time to watch patients who're far apart.
Even with advances in artificial intelligence and using electronic health record data to generate rapid, real-time predictions of existing modeling is incomplete.
2025 study This suggests that how busy a nurse feels is commonly more necessary than the variety of patients they've or current estimates of how much care those patients need. Even if the official statistics look good, a nurse's personal experience of workload is a greater predictor of whether she's going to miss care work. Because there continues to be no clear and agreed-upon technique to measure it, nurses and hospital leadership – who see the difficulty from different perspectives – often disagree on what protected staffing actually looks like, which Can lead to conflict.
Visual Vic/Moment Collection via Getty Images
As someone who studies the coordination of health care teams, I see a missing piece within the conversation about nurse staffing: the remainder of the team. This may include other medical providers, physicians, dieticians, social staff and diagnostic staff.
In fact, you might have two nurses on the identical unit with the identical variety of patients who need the identical amount of care. But one might be overtaxed while the opposite is doing just high quality, not least due to how broader patient care teams are structured and dealing together.
When nursing units are understaffed, what happens to other health care staff on their team?
Evidence on using reduced staffing and substitute staff has focused largely on patient outcomes, and is mixed. one 2022 meta-analysis No difference in patient outcomes was found during or outside of health care employee strikes. nonetheless, An exploratory study using data from New York One that focuses on nursing strikes specifically identifies an increased risk of each mortality and readmission.
Research on healthcare teams, though, suggests that there's also a risk of teamwork breakdown. Having substitute staff during a strike naturally creates patient care teams where team members haven't worked together before. This lack of shared experience may. Negatively affects teamwork..
Are there any solutions?
Negotiation Research suggests that the important thing to conflict management is knowing the opposite party's core interests. Nurses are clearly burned out, and needs to be taken seriously. However, accounting for the large picture—staffing decisions on the team level—can reduce the pressure on nurses.
David L. Ryan/Boston Globe via Getty Images
For example, How are care teams grouped? May be Serious implications Also, a nurse's experience will rely on how difficult and time-consuming it's to coordinate and look after each patient. If a nurse has three patients and three different care teams as an alternative of a single care team for all patients, coordination costs are more burdensome.
There is a few evidence of the advantages of team-based staffing. Basic care And Emergency departments. This can reduce how drastically a nurse's workload varies when comparing one patient load to 2, three, etc. Additionally, my research suggests low-cost interventions that increase spark. Nurse involvement can improve team coordination and patient outcomes, and so could be a useful lever for influencing nurse-perceived workload.
Looking at how patient care teams work together – slightly than simply specializing in nurses – can reveal latest ways to support patients and staff. Addressing these issues can reduce the necessity for early strikes or protests and help hospital leaders higher support their employees, patients, and the organization as an entire.