Key Points
- Nevada and Massachusetts nursing unions are pushing for mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios
- Niagara County, NY officials adopted a plan for aiding the county's special-needs population during an emergency.
- Nurse unions in Nevada and Massachusetts are pushing for mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in those states. The matter has passed the House and reached the Senate
in Massachusetts, with the backing of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, according to the New Bedford, MA–based Standard-Times. Two unions representing nurses at the two largest hospitals in Reno, NV, are working on bills for next year's legislative
session, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. Similar laws have been proposed in both states in recent years, but have failed. California remains the only state with mandatory
minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
- Niagara County, NY officials recently adopted a new plan for aiding the county's special-needs population during an emergency, in response to
a county Health Department nurse's efforts to help an elderly man during a snowstorm in October 2006. Supervising Public Health
Nurse Laurie Schoenfeldt kept the man, whose home had flooded, in her car and even at her home until he could be placed at
a Red Cross shelter, according to The Buffalo News. Regulations at the time provided no place for him to go.
