Nurses deliver 2,000 'Valentines' to MN Commissioner of Health

 
(St. Paul) - Minnesota nurses showed their true love for their patients Tuesday by delivering more than 2,000 reports of situations where patients were at risk due to low staffing levels. Registered Nurses brought all of the 2,000 Concern for Safe Staffing Forms filed in 2014 to Commissioner of Health Ed Ehlinger.

"We are bringing these Valentines from nurses on day shift, night shift, holiday shift, weekends, holidays," said MNA President Linda Hamilton. "Here's proof that we need more nurses. We want to do what's best for our patients." 

Nurses document unsafe staffing in their hospitals by filling out Concern for Safe Staffing Forms and sharing them with their supervisors and the Minnesota Nurses Association. The CFSS form differs from the state's Adverse Event report because the CFSS form documents incidents where patients could have been harmed or didn't receive proper care, rather than death or serious injury due to a provider's care.

"We can't provide the care we as nurses want to give and our patients deserve," Hamilton said.

Some of the more than 100 MNA members in the meeting stood up to describe to Ehlinger why they feel the need to fill out the forms.  As they talked, some nurses cried as they identified with other nurses' concerns.

"The hospitals aren't giving you the information you need, so we will," said oncology nurse Theresa Peterson, RN at North Memorial Hospital. "When (cancer) patients need medications, it's an hourly thing. So if you have five other patients, they don't get seen."

Nurses from across Minnesota stopped by the Minnesota Department of Health after visiting with their respective lawmakers to advocate for legislation protecting patient safety and preventing workplace violence. Nurses from as far away as Bagley, Thief River Falls, Duluth, and Sleepy Eye came to the Capitol to tell legislators their stories of poor hospital staffing and incidents of abuse on the job.

Commissioner Ehlinger said he and his staff would review the forms, which will inform their policy discussions.