Nursing Home Staffing: A Need for Humane Policy Nursing Facility Staffing Policy: A Case Study for Political Change

n the fall of 2000, nursing facility staffing issues hit the national policy agenda with two major events. President Clinton announced that he was proposing $1 billion in new funds for nursing facility staffing to address the current problems in his federal budget proposal for 2001 (Pear, 2000). Almost at the same time, Senators Grassley, Breaux, and Reed (2000) introduced legislation to require the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to set minimum nurse staffing requirements and to boost staffing levels in nursing facilities by $1 billion over 2 years (2001 and 2002). These are exciting new opportunities to improve conditions for nursing facility residents. The success in bringing the nurse staffing issue to the national spotlight occurred through the hard work primarily of the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNRH), a nonprofit national advocacy organization based in Washington (Burger, Frazer, Hunt, & Frank, 1996). Many other organizations have also been active, including the National Committee to Pre