Code Red Position Paper II: Voices from direct patient care staff calling for mandated staffing ratios in New Jersey’s hospitals

Two decades of empirical evidence shows that understaffing in hospitals leads to increases in negative patient outcomes such as readmissions, hospital acquired infections, and death. The health and safety of direct care staff is at risk as well, with increases in workplace violence (patient/visitor on staff) and injuries The impacts of understaffing in hospitals hurt everyone: patients, healthcare workers, families, and the wider community. Understaffing and chronic moral injury lead to burnout, high turnover, lower patient satisfaction scores, and increased costs to hospital management.