“If you don’t fix the root cause of staffing in the hospital, you are never going to fix the problems that hospitals are facing right now,” said Shannan Giambrone, a nurse at Suburban Community Hospital, Norristown, and board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.  

Giambrone says she’s been seeing more nurses leave their jobs currently than throughout her 25-year career.  

A bill is being introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that would require minimum staffing for nurses in hospitals statewide. It’s widely supported by nurses’ unions, as reported by Abraham Gutman in The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Proponents believe this bill could help ease current working conditions — rife with stress, long hours, and burnout — for these healthcare workers.

According to a survey released by AMN Healthcare, a Texas healthcare staffing firm, nurses are plain in their citations of the need for higher pay and safer working conditions.

If the Pa. legislation passes, it would require one nurse per labor-and-delivery patient and two nurses per intensive-care-unit admission.

If a hospital fails to meet these requirements, it could be fined.

Read more about the proposed efforts to improve working conditions for nurses in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association addresses staffing shortages.