1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

My name is Haley Strong, and I am a student nurse and a constituent living in your district. I am writing to urgently request your leadership and sponsorship for a new bill to protect patient safety in Utah hospitals. Specifically, I propose legislation that establishes a mandatory maximum staffing ratio of 1 nurse to 4 patients (1:4) on medical-surgical floors in all Utah hospitals with more than 20 medical-surgical beds. As a student nurse preparing to enter the workforce, I am already witnessing the critical strain on our healthcare system. During a recent clinical rotation at a Utah hospital, I worked a night shift alongside a preceptor who was forced to take a six-patient assignment. We did not sit down for the entire shift, nor did we get a break. Because of this extreme workload, we were physically unable to meet all of our patients' needs in a timely manner. This environment inflicts a profound moral injury on healthcare providers; I chose this profession to take proper care of my patients, but the sheer volume of this assignment made timely, thorough care impossible. This unsafe workload resulted in numerous patient complaints, significantly delayed care for these Utahns, and directly led to one patient leaving the hospital against medical advice (AMA). While safe staffing initiatives have been proposed in the past by the Utah Nurses Association (UNA), those efforts faced significant resistance and ultimately failed due to concerns regarding staffing inadequacies in Utah’s smaller, rural hospitals. My proposal explicitly resolves this issue. By utilizing a specific legislative threshold that applies only to units with more than 20 beds, this bill would completely protect small, critical-access rural facilities from unmanageable mandates while successfully securing necessary patient safety standards in larger, high-volume urban and suburban hospitals. Peer-reviewed medical research proves that high patient loads directly correlate with preventable harm. Studies demonstrate that for every additional patient a nurse is assigned above a safe baseline, the other patients already under that nurse's care face an 18% higher risk of mortality within 30 days. Furthermore, these overburdened staffing levels result in an 8% higher likelihood that a patient will require an additional day of hospitalization, driving up healthcare costs for Utah families and our state’s economy. By passing legislation that sets a strict, mandatory maximum 1:4 ratio on medical-surgical floors in facilities with more than 20 beds, Utah can protect its patients, support the next generation of healthcare professionals, and offer a balanced solution that respects our rural infrastructure. As your constituent, I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you or your staff to discuss this proposal, review the relevant data, and explore drafting a bill for the upcoming legislative session. Thank you for your time, your dedication to our community, and your consideration of this critical safety measure.