C 159 Policy, Politics, & Global Trends A1. Public Policy Issue The nursing profession policy that impacts nursing and needs to change is the nurse to patient ratio. For years, nurses across the nation have been asking for safer staffing ratios. With tighter budgets and substantial increases in the number of patients, nurses have been working in situations that endanger both patients and themselves. Mandated safe staffing ratios are key to the healthcare industry. Since 2017, California is still the only state to have a safe patient ratio law (Blitchok, 2018). Patients are at a higher risk of infection, medical errors, falls and even death. Hospital is continuously trying to improve patient outcomes, but they keep overlooking the nurse to patient ratio factor which is resulting...