Safe Nurse Staffing: A Win-Win Collaboration Model for Influencing Health Policy

The nursing shortage has resulted in patients seeing fewer registered nurses (RNs) at the bedside in this time of high acuity and high use of health care facilities. A possible solution to the shortage is to improve staffing in hospitals to make them more nurse-friendly. A further benefit is the improvement of safety standards when full nursing staff complements are available. This article describes a collaborative initiative to implement health policy to improve the work environment by incorporating the American Nurses Association (ANA) staffing principles into state rules and regulations. The process described is one that used the political and regulatory arenas to bring together historically competing groups to work toward a mutually acceptable policy initiative that actually increased nurses’ ability to influence staffing in hospitals in the State of Texas. The process of mediation and collaboration is translatable into many health policy and political areas in which a win-win solution benefits everyone.