ROCHESTER, M.N. (KELO) — Nurses within the Mayo Clinic Health System are speaking out about their work conditions.

Along with feeling undervalued and overworked, they state that all nurses should be re-trained.
They spoke in support of the “Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act”, which is legislation that tackles staffing issues.

It would require hospitals to form committees made up of nurses and other hospital staff to create core staffing plans. The committee would oversee how many patients each nurse can safely care for and assign a maximum amount.

“I feel undervalued. I many times don’t feel respected with our opinions. I don’t feel respected for our requests. When we mention that our nurses feel unsafe at times, I feel that it falls on deaf ears. I feel that I could talk till I’m blue in the face, as blue as my uniform and nobody hears me. And that’s not the way it should be. We should be working together,” said Julie Laue, RN.

Emails from Mayo to the governor’s office say that the proposals threaten significant facilities and infrastructure investments the health system was planning.