A grassroots project by nursing students, for the profession.
Step two

Copy a template, personalize it, send it

Swap out anything in [brackets], then paste it into an email or a printed letter.

For US legislators

Built around the federal staffing bill, but works for state-level ratio bills too.

Dear [Representative/Senator Name], I'm writing as a nurse (or nursing student) in [State] to ask you to support the Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act (H.R. 3415 / S. 1709), and any safe-staffing legislation before you this session. Understaffing isn't an abstract line item for the people providing your constituents' care — it's why nurses are leaving the bedside faster than nursing schools can replace them, and it's linked to measurable harm: more medication errors, more falls, more infections. California and Oregon have already shown that mandated ratios are workable. I'm asking you to help make [State] the next state that takes patient safety, and nurse retention, seriously. Thank you for your time and your service. [Your name] [Your city]

For Canadian MPs and MPPs

Points to Manitoba's ratio law as proof it's possible.

Dear [MP/MPP Name], I'm writing as a nurse (or nursing student) in [Riding] to ask you to support legislated nurse-to-patient ratios, following Manitoba's lead as the first province to act. Nurses in [Province] are leaving faster than they can be replaced, and the research is clear that unsafe staffing levels put patients at risk. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions' National Council on Nurse-Patient Ratios has already laid the groundwork — what's missing in [Province] is the political will to act on it. I'm asking you to raise this in [Parliament/the Legislature] and to support real funding for safe staffing. Thank you for your time and your service to our community. [Your name] [Your riding]