Last year at the State Capitol, legislators were impressed when the Minnesota Nurses Association turned over boxes of Concern for Safe Staffing Forms at committee hearings.
The forms helped make the case that patients are at risk and nurses are advocating for better staffing to improve quality care.
Now the form has been improved to allow for database search and data analysis. We will now be able to tell lawmakers and patients how many incidents of unsafe staffing occurred at facilities; how many times nurses felt their patients were at risk; how many times management ignored or simply dismissed requests by nurses to bring in more staff because they were caring for too many patients at one time.
While some nurses may have had HIPAA concerns over filling out the forms, the new forms do not require any specific patient information, and if patient information concerns are necessary (such as acuity) to indicate an unsafe staffing situation, those details can be provided in a separate format where HIPAA concerns can be addressed before they become public.
Bookmark www.unsafeshift.org on all your devices in the event you need to access the form quickly and reliably. The new Concern for Safe Staffing form is the latest tool to show managers and policy makers that unsafe staffing continues to be an issue that must be addressed.