Registered Nurses (RN) across the nation are proposing staffing ratios in several states and now on Guam! GFT’s negotiating team for the GMH Nurses’ contract has been working diligently to complete a contract this week with the inclusion of staffing ratios. It is important to include this through collective bargaining so that it is bound by contract to protect our nurses and improve the quality of health care for Guam’s families. Not only will staffing ratios improve patient care but it will increase recruitment and retention of RNs which our hospital desperately needs. Staffing ratios proposed by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CAN/NNOC) that was made into law since 1999, has drastically improved California’s health care and saved lives. “More than 60 prominent studies have documented that hospital understaffing results in more patient deaths, plus more preventable complications like pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and medication errors. Even President Barack Obama pledged his support for ‘minimum nurse staffing ratios’,” stated in the CNA/NNOC The Ratio Solutions. Click here to read more on the CNANNOC staffing ratios