Nurses Rally for Health Care Reform

Nurses marched onto the Capitol steps on Thursday to demand a healthcare reform.

They say their hospitals are understaffed and the nurses are overworked.

About 800 registered nurses and nursing students made their voices heard on Thursday, as they pushed for the passage of the Safe Patient Care Bill, now in the Legislature.

"Ratios in our hospital are not meeting our ability to meet the patients needs. We have patients that never get a nurse at their bedside," said Renee Curtis, registered nurse.

Curtis and fellow nurse, John Armelagos, agree that understaffed hospitals have nothing to do with a shortage of nurses.

"We have hundreds of thousands of registered nurses in our country who do not practice because of unsafe working conditions," said Armelagos.

Armelagos says those unsafe conditions include mandatory overtime, which can lead to preventable errors in patient care.

"Nurses may have to work 12 hours a day, 16 hours a day, and they're too tired to deliver safe care," said Armelagos.

The Safe Patient Care Bill would put a stop to that, and Curtis says it would bring nursing into line with other professions.

"Airline pilots have controls for how many hours they can fly, truck drivers have controls for how many hours they can be on the road. Nurses push meds everyday that can alter someone's life," said Curtis.

The bill would also enact minimum nurse to patient ratio, to give each patient the care he or she needs.

"When you don't have enough registered nurses at the bedside, patients die," said Armelagos.

The Safe Patient Care Bill is now in the House and the Michigan Nurses Association says they will continue their efforts until it is signed into law.