Minimum nurse-staffing mandates benefit nurses, patients, report says

Research in California and other states shows that mandatory limits on the number of patients a registered nurse can care for at any one time would help reduce the nursing shortage in Illinois and improve patient care, a new report says. What the Illinois Economic Policy Institute calls “safe patient limits” for nurses — a concept in a bill pending in the Illinois General Assembly that is strongly opposed by hospital officials statewide — would result in less-stressful working conditions for nurses and higher employee retention rates, according to the recently released report from the institute.