Massachusetts residents, what do you think is important for voters to consider regarding Question 1 and nurse to patient ratios?

The arguments are on the ballot but what is not on the ballot is the potential ripples from either a yes or no. 

Voting yes has the potential to increase the quality of care because it may result in healthcare staff being less over burdened but has the potential to limit patient care at capacity. 

Vote no if you do not want your healthcare cost to increase and for health care to become less accessible to those already struggling with the cost of healthcare. 

We will pay for a yes vote directly out of pocket if you use it or not.

I've seen 2 sides to the coin - it appears that many hospital are going corporate - and "mistreating" the medical side for profit. I'm debating on voting Yes - however I was originally going to vote "No". Tough call - what do the nurses want?  I've seen many a stressed out nurse lately - which one would add or take away from their stress with the results of this decision?

I spoke with a nurse who was attending to me recently at Emerson.  She said she is voting YES. Hospitals are now for-profit businesses and they will squeeze every penny out of the staff.  A harried nurse on an understaffed shift is not going to be able to provide the critical services to patients in need, particularly in the E.R.  I and my friends are voting YES. 

It's very hard because I think we'd all agree having safe nurse assignments is desirable. But, after asking the same open ended question, I got equal amounts for and against. I found it interesting that yard signs had a geographical disparity as well. 

However, I kept returning to the question "how will this cost not get passed along to the patient and insured citizen. The "FOR" proponents had a lot of "that would never happen",scare tactics, and plain insults, when asked for details. 

I believe there was good intent by the nurses. But, I think this legislation is flawed, and I see the only sure winner would be the Nurses Union who couldn't get safe staffing levels through collective bargaining. This should be addressed there and through Medical Certification Standards. It seems it will solve 1 problem and create 5 more.

Therefore, I'm voting NO.

I do not like to debate political issues but I do urge everyone to really read the ballot questions and have a clear understanding of what they are casting their vote for.  Questions are often misleading and what sounds great upfront often has serious reprecussions.  Before you vote take the time to read.  Every vote matters! 

My daughter is a nurse practitioner and advises us to vote "Yes"..as she is overwhelmed with daily patients to the point that she can't really give each the time they need. She feels that the system is overwhelming nurses with too many patients as they are don't have to pay them as much as they do doctors. She is seeing 25 patients a day rather than the allotted time for 10-15.

I am in favor of standards and ratios but this vote is a no for me.  Is a nurse the same as any nurse? A med-surg department the same evrywhere? How does physician communication and having nursing assistants impact patient care and quality?

The way standards and ratios need to be developed must be based on desired health care outcomes.  Look at best outcomes and determine the best practices to achieve them, both in terms of process and staffing.  Experience in Californa setting up arbitrary ratios without doing this has not improved quality, but has definitely increased costs!

Let's deal with the problem the right way! Vote no but let's fix it the right way!

I am sure we all want to make nurses are not over worked and therefore less able to give their best care- BUT putting manditory ratios is not the right answer. Some nurses can handle more while some really can handle less... and it depends on the needs of the specific patients as well. I would hate an arbitrary limit to cause the next patient to not get care. This could force some patients to be turned away if hospitals are especially busy- and what if there were a Desaster and a large number of patients needed help at once? I believe a regulation meant to improve our healthcare would result in the opposite. My hope is that managerial staff would know their staff well enough to reasonably delicate work to their nurses and make all best efforts to call in additional help when it gets to be too much.

According to my mother, nurse, and  nurses that took care of my kids in NICU, VOTE NO!

This is such a touchy subject. One part of me says vote no because I think about my own family being in a situation where if I or my child needed care would I want them to turn me away. The other part of me says vote yes because the occupation is stressful enough or burn out is a reality is this industry. There should be some control over the longevity and well being of the people providing the care as well. I'm not sure