An English nurse who laid the foundations for professional nursing, Florence Nightingale stated: “It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the first requirement in a hospital that of doing no damage to the sick." Acute care facilities try to keep costs low and employ quality nurses, making nurse-patient ratios increasingly an issue for patient care. Almost every person's healthcare experience involves the contribution of a professional nurse, and the effects of the lack of an adequate minimum nurse-patient ratio affect not only the patient and the nurse physically, medically , but also from the hospital from a financial point of view. Determining nurse-patient ratios is a difficult task with no single or definitive solution and many variables exist to develop guidelines to cover every possible situation in an acute care setting. There are two Ohio state boards that help ensure patient safety and maintain a safe workplace for healthcare workers, such as nurses. The first board is the Ohio Board of Nursing and the following is the description of what they are responsible for: The board exists solely to enforce the law and rules governing practice. The Board has the authority to establish the requirements that individuals must meet to obtain a license or certificate to practice nursing or provide dialysis care in Ohio. The Board approves pre-licensure nursing education programs and dialysis training programs, supervises the licensing examination of nurses, and takes disciplinary action when a licensee or certificate holder violates the law. These activities help ensure that only qualified personnel provide care to the public. The Council does not exist to advance the interests of the nursing profession or dialysis t...... middle of paper ......s, C., & Hess, R. (2009). Registered nurses' perceptions of nurse staffing ratios and new hospital payment regulations. Nursing Economic$, 27(6), 372-376. Retrieved from the Academic Search Complete database. Costello, M. (2002). The JCAHO Workforce Report states that staffing levels impact quality and safety. AHA News, 38(31), 1. Retrieved from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database. Garretson, S. (2004). Nurse/patient ratio in American health care. Nursing Standard, 19(14-16), 33-37.Griffiths, P. (2009). Staffing levels and patient outcomes. Nursing Management - UK, 16(6), 22-23. Retrieved from the comprehensive academic research database.