D.C. Council chair to propose bill boosting nurse staffing at hospitals "I think this bill is today's version of the eight-hour day - something that we will see business resist, but on the other hand makes good sense and leads to quality care," Mendelson said. Mendelson introduced similar legislation six years ago. He said he expects opposition from the hospitals because of the perceived increase in costs. "But I'm not convinced it will increase costs," he said in an interview before the press conference. Improved nurse staffing leads to better-quality care, which, in turn, means fewer errors and staff turnovers, which are also expensive, he said. The "Patient Protection Act," which also include a prohibition on mandatory overtime and whistleblower protections for nurses, has the early support of nine D.C. Council members - enough to guarantee passage. Bonnie Linen-Carroll, an operating room nurse at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, described how patients are regularly wheeled into the hospital's surgical unit uncleaned and unprepared for their procedures. "Because nurses in other units were short-staffed, they did not have time to properly prep these patients," she said. Some patients, she said, have been left to soil themselves because overworked nurses are unable to help them use the bathroom quickly enough. Margaret Shanks, a transport nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's National Medical Center, said nurses have been forced to care for too many patients on their shifts. "There are simply not enough nurses at the bedside," she said. I have dealt with too many nurses in tears at the end of their shift because hospital management put them into impossible situations. In the Children's Hospital NICU, she said, nurses regularly care for three patients each - two patients per nurse is standard, she said. Some very sick infants, Shanks said, should have a single nurse's sole attention. But "that one-to-one attention is rarely authorized," she said. The ratio of nurses to patients was a concern during a labor dispute between the National Nurses United union and MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Several hundred nurses held a one-day strike in March 2011 before the two sides reached agreement. Union officials said nurse staffing is a chronic problem. But the issue takes on greater importance, experts say, under the federal health-care overhaul. Hospitals are being rewarded or penalized on how they perform on many more quality measures. And experts say nurse staffing can help hospitals" performances. The union surveyed nurses at nine hospitals in the District last fall and found widespread concern about inadequate staffing. Of more than 800 nurses who responded, 60 percent say changes in their workload have led to worse outcomes for patients, according to the union. Nearly 90 percent of the nurses who responded said they have had to work through meal and rest breaks because there are not enough nurses.