Nurses have been facing unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios for years now and they need our help. They are overworked, understaffed, put in dangerous situations, forced to risk their licenses, facing burnout, and threatened when they try to speak out. They face unimaginable problems. They don’t know what to expect when coming into their job, how many patients they will be assigned, if they will have to put themselves in dangerous situations, if they will be able to care for their dying patients in the way they deserve, and if they will have to risk the nursing license that they worked so hard to get. In 2019 the projected supply increase of licensed nurses in Florida was 50,700 while the demand was 76,600 (Iacobucci, W., Dall, T., Chakrabarti, R., & Jones, K, 2021). Furthermore, in 2019 Florida was already facing a supply of nurses 11,500 lower than their demand and if trends continue there will be a 12% deficit of nurses (Iacobucci, et. al., 2021). Additionally, The Associated Press (2021) predicted that 70% of hospitals in Florida would have severe staffing shortages in September of 2021. However, I think with the added problems that the global pandemic has caused the deficit could become much greater. 
This is why we need to take action now before the problem gets out of hand and people are unnecessarily dying because of improper care as a result of the lack of nurses. This petition is asking Florida Senators, the Florida House of Representatives, and the Florida Senate Committee on Health Policy to create mandatory Nurse-To-Patient ratios. As Robbins (2015) states, “Dozens of studies have found that the more patients assigned to a nurse, the higher the patients’ risk of death, infections, complications, falls, failure-to-rescue rates and readmission to the hospital — and the longer their hospital stay.” It’s not only the nurses that need our help, we our fighting for ourselves and our loved ones. 
Hospitals should be required submit a staffing plan that adheres to minimum safe nurse-to-patient ratios to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Additionally, hospitals must keep records of nurse-to-patient ratios for each shift. If nurses are asked to participate in an unsafe situation that does not adhere to the staffing and ratio requirements, they are allowed to object and decline participation if they feel it would be putting a patient’s safety or their nursing license at risk. Furthermore, hospitals are not allowed to take actions against a nurse for refusing to participate in a situation as described above. Hospitals also may not take action against nurses with reasonable complaints about hospital conditions they deem to be unsafe. If hospitals do not adhere to these regulations, they should be held accountable by the HHS.