Cranford Township Committee Supports Nursing Staff Standards

CRANFORD -- On March 5, 2024, the Township Committee unanimously approved a resolution supporting New Jersey legislation to establish minimum registered professional nursing staff standards. Proposed state legislation, Assembly Bill No. 3450 and Senate Bill No. S1941, lays out registered professional nursing staff-to-patient ratios, calling for minimum staffing standards in general and special hospitals, State psychiatric hospitals, and ambulatory surgical facilities to be enacted by law.

Nursing staff shortages has direct links to patient mortality. Shortages in staffing also leads to higher patient assignments, creating higher levels of job dissatisfaction, burnout and turnover rates among nurses, per the resolution.

“Safe staffing would lower, if not eliminate, the penalties hospitals incur, saving individual hospitals millions of dollars. Safe staffing levels mean you and your loved ones would get the care they expect and deserve when they show up to the hospital. They also mean better care and better outcomes, a better working environment, less turnover, and more experienced nurses and healthcare workers taking care of your loved ones,” Deputy Mayor Terrance Curran said March 5 at the official meeting of the Township Committee.

Read the Township Committee Resolution, Assembly Bill No. 3450 and Senate Bill No. S1941 in the attachments below.

Watch Deputy Mayor Terrence Curran’s statement on the legislature here on TV-35.