"Patient Ratios Save Lives" was a popular sign. A number of studies have proven the link between adequate nurse staffing and positive patient outcomes.

"Presently, the system works to keep patients out of the hospital as long as possible, and to discharge them as soon as possible. Patients are sicker, and care is more complex. Cutting the numbers of RN's, substituting unlicensed aides for registered nurses, and preventing RN's from speaking out about patient care concerns are exactly the wrong moves."

"There is an emerging nursing shortage, and chronic understaffing is not helping to alleviate it. Nurses may elect to leave the acute care setting, and young people are not entering nursing in the numbers needed to meet the growing demand. We must remember that nurses enter their profession in the first place to provide safe, quality, compassionate care. Understaffing impedes their ability to do this.

Hospitals need to care for those who care. No nurse should have to face preventable risks of injury and death in the course of patient care."-- Beverly Malone, President, American Nurses Association. (1999).