Maine hospitals would need to meet minimum nurse staffing ratios under a bill proposed by Democratic state lawmakers and supported by the Maine State Nurses Association.
During a public hearing Tuesday, supporters told lawmakers on the Labor committee that requiring a certain number of staff per patient will increase safety and help retain nurses.
"When administration doesn't staff the floor safely, it looks like human beings sitting in their stool and urine, embarrassed and powerless," said Mary Kate O'Sullivan, a nurse at Maine Medical Center. "We nurses are the ones who have to experience the moral distress and guilty conscience while we work in systems that set up us to fail. We're the ones that have to look these patients in the eye while they cry. Is it any wonder why hospitals struggle to staff these bedside nursing positions?"
But Lisa Harvey McPherson of the Maine Action Coalition said the workforce shortage should be addressed through training more nurses.
"This bill does not produce one nurse," McPherson said. "It doesn't work with our education programs. It doesn't produce clinical faculty. It doesn't produce preceptors."
Opponents also include the Maine Hospital Association.
California is currently the only other state that has a minimum nurse staffing requirement. Several other states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, are considering such mandates.
