PORTLAND, Maine — Maine nurses held a forum at the University of Southern Maine Tuesday night to call for talk about the current staffing crisis, public health, and to call for limits on how many patients they can be asked to care for at hospitals.
"Right from the beginning, we’re asked to do an amount of work that is impossible for one person," Sadie Tirrell, a former Maine Medical Center nurse who left her job last week, said. "All the nurses at Maine Medical are miserable. We’re really unhappy. We’re really unhealthy."
Tirrell was among the health professionals calling for the state legislature to mandate staffing ratios.
Lawmakers have proposed a bill to do this called "An Act to Address Unsafe Staffing of Nurses and Improve Patient Care," also known as LD 1639.
"The goal is to create a safer patient experience in the hospital by making sure the patients get the care that they deserve and that the nurses have the workplace that feels safe,” Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, said.
Some hospital officials who oppose the bill say it could reduce access to care.
"This bill would reduce nurses to numbers and strip us of the flexibility to make the best decisions in the moment for the care of our patients," Sharon Baughman, chief nursing officer for MaineHealth, said. "And I am concerned about the moral distress it will cause."
"Nursing judgment and not mandated staffing ratios improve the quality of patient care. The federal government and the Maine Legislature have consistently rejected ratio laws," Bette Neville, chief nursing officer for Northern Light Health, said. "A law mandating rigid staffing ratios at a time of a nursing shortage will reduce access to care in every Maine community."
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to Republican leaders in the Senate for their stance on this legislation but did not hear back.