1199SEIU to Lawmakers—Stand with Nursing Home Patients and Caregivers, Not a Billion Dollar Industry

Industry lobby attempts to weaken the nursing home staffing bill are ill-conceived and designed to safeguard profits, not patient care.

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New Jersey—1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East calls on the New Jersey legislature to take a stand for patient care and pass bill S1612/A382 to establish minimum certified nursing assistant (CNA)-to-patient staffing ratios in nursing homes. CNAs are the primary front-line staff in nursing facilities, responsible for 90% of direct resident care.

In a system dominated by for-profit operators, New Jersey’s nursing home industry has among the lowest CNA staffing levels in the nation, currently ranking 44th. This has contributed to poor quality care outcomes on a number of indicators, including the percent of patients diagnosed with pressure sores and the percent of patients with one or more potentially burdensome transitions at the end of life.

“It is appalling that nursing home owners in New Jersey continue to choose profit over care, receiving millions of taxpayer Medicaid and Medicare dollars while providing patients with some of the worst direct-care staffing levels in the country,” said Milly Silva, Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. “Despite a years’ long staffing crisis and repeated pleas from patients, their families and caregivers, our nursing home industry has refused to make necessary improvements to their CNA workforce. It’s time for our state legislature to step in and take action to protect New Jersey seniors.”

The nursing home industry is seeking ways to avoid straight-forward, clear, and enforceable staffing requirements. Among other requested changes to gut S1612/A382, industry lobbyists proposed including registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) within the direct-care staffing ratio, which would raise serious concerns of nurses being expected to work below the scope of their job.

“Nurses have a professional duty to work at the top of their license, as they are responsible for all clinical aspects of their patients’ health,” said Norma Amsterdam, a Registered Nurse and Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU’s RN Council. “It would be wholly inappropriate to expect an RN or LPN to take time away from their nursing duties to assist residents with basic activities of daily living, a role that CNAs are hired specifically to do. CNAs and nurses have distinct roles to play in a nursing home, and it is vital that we invest in proper CNA staffing so that nurses are not burdened with work that does not maximize their skill set.”

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in New Jersey and nationwide. We represent over 16,000 healthcare families in New Jersey and over 400,000 total members throughout New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all.