New law increases demand for nurses

By Dana Yates, Daily Journal Staff

After four years of preparation, hospitals are now required by law to staff one nurse for six patients — a difficult feat that local hospital officials say they’re close to accomplishing.

“We have to step back and look at this. We really feel this will change the landscape of hospitals in California,” said Liz Jacobs, spokeswoman for the California Nurses Association. “This is becoming an attractive occupation again for both woman and men.”

The staffing law signed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 1999 requires six to one ratios on general medical wards beginning Jan. 1. Although more nurses improve patient care, hospitals have fought the law since the early 90s when the California Nurses Association introduced a similar bill under Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration. That bill failed.

Hospital officials claimed it would be too difficult to maintain ratios under ever-changing circumstances and a declining nurse population. Now, with mixed feelings about the law’s recent enactment, hospitals are meeting it head-on and with new recruiting tactics.

“Kaiser has been preparing for this since 2001,” said Michelle Brown, communication manager for South Bay Kaiser Permanente which includes the Redwood City branch. “Our goal is not to meet, but exceed those state mandates.”

To date Kaiser has hired 3,000 nurses in California and is aiming at staffing one nurse to every four patients. Brown could not give specifics for the number of new nurses that have been hired at Kaiser in Redwood City. At Mills-Peninsula hospital in Burlingame about 20 new names have been added to the payroll to fill the new positions. With a nursing staff of more than 600, the hospital still has 50 open positions from standard turnover.

Aside from Alaska, California has the largest shortage of skilled nurses in the United States. With the staffing law, more than 5,000 new nurses will be added to hospitals throughout the state, said Liz Jacobs, spokeswoman for California Nurses Association.

Hospitals throughout San Mateo County hired hundreds of extra nurses to prepare for the new law. They are offering signing bonuses, better wages and benefits. They are bolstering local nursing schools, offering re-entry education for nurses who left the industry and even recruiting from other countries. Hospitals are also taking leaps to change policies to ensure job security.

The new requirement is bringing nurses from across the nation — and the world — to area hospitals. In October 2001, representatives from Mills-Peninsula traveled to England where they offered jobs to 100 nurses. One already started working at the hospital and another 30 are expected to begin within the next six months.

With the new law in effect, hospitals are taking the challenges in stride.

“I can’t say we don’t have our bumps. It varies from minutes,” said Christine Deluca, vice president of acute care services at Mills-Peninsula.

Staffing requirements change on a daily — sometimes hourly — basis. The new law requires the hospitals to provide the correct ratio of nurses to patients at all hours. In previous years, hospital management has been able to cancel nurses at a moment’s notice to save money even if it meant burdening others with one or two extra patients. To better their recruiting, Kaiser has altogether nixed its last-minute cancellation policy.

Such policies are what led to the decline of nurses in the state. But with hospitals doing all they can to change them and attract more employees, the prospects for nurses looks good, Jacobs said.

Those who left the industry are coming back to better retirement plans. Hospitals are recruiting those nurses into re-entry programs at schools throughout the Bay Area including University of California, at San Francisco, College of San Mateo and Caсada College. Each year schools throughout the state graduate about 6,600 student, Jacobs said.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.