Thank you for "AHRQ: Numbers Count for High-Quality Care" (In the News, October). My unit is having serious staffing issues right now, and I believe that most others in our hospital have even higher patient-nurse ratios (in some cases, 10 to 1). Mine is a medical-surgical unit (previously an intermediate critical care unit [ICCU]). When it became a medical-surgical unit, many of the nurses left. A new nurse who completed orientation the day the unit changed, I went from caring for three ICCU patients to six medical-surgical patients-or I should say medical-surgical, telemetry, orthopedic, neurologic, cardiac, psychiatric, or ventilated patients. Many patients have complained to me about the nursing care they've received-and that's with a six-to-one ratio. What will happen when it goes up?

I'll say it: nursing shouldn't be this way. Patient-nurse ratios should be getting lower, not higher.

Sharon L. Rodriguez, RN

Long Pond, PA