Have you ever felt unsafe at work because of unsafe staffing? It’s something we’ve heard time and time again from nurses in every specialty. And this is not just nurses complaining about being overworked or too busy. Studies have shown that the health of patients in hospitals is directly proportionate to the number of registered nurses working in the hospital.

And now, Congress is finally addressing this issue:

The Registered Nurse Safe Staffing Act of 2007 has been introduced in the House on November 9th and it can be found in its entirety here.

The best part of this bill? They want to give the nursing staff the power to decide what is safe:

A staffing system adopted and implemented under this section shall be developed on the basis of input from the direct care-giving registered nurse staff.

You can write to your representative and give them your input on this issue. Not sure who your representative is? Find out here.

Also, visit WashingtonWatch.com. They link to the bill and there’s a wiki section where you can post your arguments for or against this bill. You can also vote for or against the bill and post this widget to your blog:

Nurses, let’s not let this one slip by. Take a brief moment out of your day to take some action and let’s see this bill get passed.