National Nurses United (NNU) and New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) President Nancy Hagans, RN, will testify at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Friday, Oct. 27 at 9 a.m. ET in support of federal legislation supporting mandatory minimum registered nurse-to-patient ratios.

Hagans will join a panel at the congressional field hearing in New Brunswick, New Jersey entitled, “Overworked and Undervalued: Is the Severe Hospital Staffing Crisis Endangering the Well-Being of Patients and Nurses?” This is the first-ever Senate hearing exploring the issue of safe staffing ratios.

Alongside Hagans, the panel will feature nurses from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital who are members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 4-200 and who have been on strike since August over issues related to safe staffing and safe patient care.

WHAT: Senate field hearing entitled “Overworked and Undervalued: Is the Severe Hospital Staffing Crisis     Endangering the Well-Being of Patients and Nurses?” 
WHO:

• HELP Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders
• Nancy Hagans, RN, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and NNU president
• Judith Danella, RN, President of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 4-200 and striking nurse at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
• Carol Tanzi, RN, USW Local 4-200 member and striking nurse at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
• Debbie White, RN, President, Health Professional and Allied Employees
• Patricia Pittman, PhD, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University
• Mark Manigan, President and CEO of RWJ Barnabas Health
• Alan Lee, President, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital

WHEN: 9:00 a.m. ET, Friday, October 27, 2023
WHERE: Nicholas Music Center, Rutgers University, 85 George St., New Brunswick, N.J.

The hearing will also be livestreamed on the HELP Committee’s website.

Alongside discussing her personal experience as a bedside nurse and union leader who won safe staffing standards in her hospital through collective action, Hagans will discuss the extensive research behind safe registered nurse-to-patient ratios, and the proven success of safe staffing ratios in improving patient care and increasing RN retention.

Often deliberately misframed as a “nursing shortage” by hospital industry executives, the current nurse staffing crisis is a direct result of corporate practices that drive nurses away from the bedside by making their jobs more difficult and dangerous, putting their patients and their licenses at risk. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing indicates that, nationwide, there are more than one million registered nurses with active licenses who are not working at the bedside. More data and information debunking the “nursing shortage” myth can be found here.

NNU is the largest and fastest-growing union of registered nurses in the United States today, with over 225,000 members.