As a proud Maine nurse, I have been extremely disheartened by the campaign supporting L.D. 1639, a bill that would impose arbitrary nurse staffing ratios in our hospitals. Just today, I saw a social media post by the nurses’ union suggesting that hospitals — not nurses — are the only opponents of this bill. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There are many nurses who, like me, believe that trained nurses should make decisions about the staffing needs of our hospital units. We factor patient acuity, the experience of our nurses, and the availability of team members into this important work. And, in some cases, we turn patients away when we do not have appropriate staffing to meet the needs of our patients. This bill would subject nurses to personal fines of up to $25,000 if our good judgment is not aligned with the specific and fixed ratios required in this legislation. Government-imposed fines on individual nurses are demeaning and disrespectful of a profession that is so important to our state.
As a nurse who loves my profession, I urge our legislators to vote “no” on L.D. 1639.
Jana Drake
Woolwich
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