Columbus, Ohio It's a pretty strong indictment of the quality of health care, at least in Ohio. Nearly half of the 2,201 nurses responding to anOhio NursesAssociation health care survey said they would not feel comfortable having someone close to them receive care in the facility in which they work. One of the reasons is the nurses' workloads.

"Nurses are concerned that the amount of time they are allotted for each patient is being compromised due to an increase in patient care load," said Betsy Waid, director of the economic and general welfare program for ONA. Waid noted that more than three-quarters-75.5 percent-of the nurses who responded to the survey said the time they have to deliver patient care has dwindled. The average decrease, according to survey results, was 32 percent.

The nurses identified three things contributing to their workload problems: insufficient staffing (70 percent said staffing was inadequate at their facilities); an increase in the acuity of the patients; and a shift to more administrative tasks (60 percent said they were doing more non-patient care work). Those factors, said 74 percent of the respondents, affect their ability to deliver safe, quality care.