SEIU 'nurses propose staffing ratios at UPMC hospital'

 Less than one year after unionizing, nurses and advanced practitioners at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh are proposing national nurse staffing standards as part of their first contract negotiations with UPMC.

SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania members presented the proposals to Pittsburgh-based UPMC on March 10. The plan includes detailed, department-by-department staffing ratios based on standards set by national professional organizations such as the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, according to a news release from the union.

For example, the proposal calls for one nurse per woman who is laboring or being induced, one nurse for every one to two newborns requiring intensive care and one nurse for every three healthy mother-baby pairs after birth.

The union said nurses are also proposing staffing standards for the emergency department, adult intensive care unit, medical-surgical unit, oncology unit, lactation consultants and outpatient clinics.

“Magee nurses want more time with our patients, and we’ve heard from hundreds of patients through our community survey that they want more time with us — that’s what our staffing proposals aim to achieve,” labor and delivery nurse Mariah Park said in a statement.

The proposals would cover about 900 registered nurses and advanced practitioners at Magee, including certified registered nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and other clinicians who joined SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania in August and September.

If adopted, Magee would become the first UPMC hospital in Western Pennsylvania with enforceable nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A handful of other Pennsylvania hospitals, including Temple University Hospital, Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and Allegheny Health Network’s Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, already have similar staffing limits in union contracts, the publication reported.

UPMC opposes the proposal.

“At UPMC Magee, we share our nurses’ goal of providing safe staffing and excellent patient care in every unit and every shift,” a UPMC spokesperson said in a statement to Becker’s. “We know safe staffing is driven by clinical judgment and unit-specific needs, not one-size-fits-all ratios.

“Research shows staffing is complex, and fixed ratios don’t address the underlying nursing shortage or the real drivers of workload, such as patient acuity, team structure and real-time conditions. In practice, rigid ratios can create unintended consequences, including reduced flexibility, closed beds and limits on patients’ access to care. Our focus is on clinically driven, team-based staffing that allows our nurses and leaders to adjust in real time to optimize patient care.”

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hr/nurses-propose-staffing-ratios-at-upmc-hospital/