Having been in both situations, hospitals are more into cutting costs and protecting their bottom line than patient care beyond the bare bones necessity mandated by law. How many patients a single nurse has to care for will affect those patients. It takes time to provide good, not just adequate, care and manage every aspect of the recovery process, whilst also trying to ameliorate their pain, fears and anxieties. The sicker they are, the more time it takes, but the facility only counts the minutes on the clock as money lost.

As a patient I've had nurses called away right in the middle of a post op dressing change, too busy to even remember to return and finish. Things like your IV fluids running out or the PCA pump going empty, even fresh water or changing your stained sheets, gets overlooked when the nursing staff is over burdened.

In contrast, I remember one lovely nurse in particular who took a few extra minutes from her hectic schedule just to chat with me when I was feeling low, she even pulled out her phone and shared pictures of her cat when I tearfully confessed to being worried about my own furbaby that was home alone. That simple human interaction helped ease my stress.

The laws regulating nurse/patient staffing ratios should be state wide, or even national laws, because as sure as the sun rises, I have no doubt that Republican governed states will still find ways to put profits over people.