Nurses hope 2026 is a year of momentum for safer staffing

If you ask the Chinese Zodiac, 2026 is the year of the horse. But if you ask nurses, it’s their year.

Accrediting body the Joint Commission kicked it off with newly restructured requirements for hospitals, effective Jan. 1. The nonprofit, which has accredited or certified 23,000+ global health organizations, removed 714 hospital requirements. This latest cut leaves 774 standards, including 14 national performance goals.

Goal 12 asks hospitals to maintain an “adequate number” of staff—like registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses—to care for all patients, and requires management to conduct an analysis of staffing if there are any safety or care quality issues. Though this reorganization adds no new requirements, it still has some nurses optimistic that change is coming.

Rebekah Marsh, an RN and president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), told Healthcare Brew the change adds “emphasis” and “teeth” to nurse staffing rules.

“I do think it will result in some changes and some more specific accountability,” she said.

Some remain skeptical. Not everyone finds hope in the Joint Commission’s restructured goals, however.

Mary Turner, an RN and copresident of the National Nurses United (NNU) union, told Healthcare Brew in an email the 2026 goals “will have little impact on staffing” because they don’t change accreditation standards.

“The 2026…nurse staffing goals are a missed opportunity for meaningful reform. We need enforceable staffing standards that ensure that there is safe, competent, therapeutic, and effective nursing care in place for all patients at all times,” she said.

She added that NNU supports federal legislation that would limit the number of patients a hospital can assign to a nurse at one time, specifically the proposed Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2025.

Current federal laws don’t include specific limits on nurse-to-patient ratios. As of March 2022, 16 states have laws or regulations that address nurse staffing, per the American Nurses Association. But only California has capped nurse-to-patient ratios across all units and specialties.

A July 2023 report from the Agency for Healthcare Quality found state-level mandated ratios to be associated with lower patient mortality rates and nurse turnover as well as fewer adverse events and other positive outcomes.

NNU maintains there are enough licensed nurses to bring an end to the current ratio roulette. In a September 2025 letter, the organization pointed to national data showing 1.1 million of the total 4.8 million actively licensed RNs weren’t working as nurses.

A broad push. NNU is one of several groups pushing for safer staffing.

In New York City, 15,000 nurses from Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals have been striking since Jan. 12 in pursuit of safer staffing, secure health benefits, and improved workplace violence protections.

On the other side of the country, 31,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California and Hawaii announced an open-ended strike that began Jan. 26. The United Nurses Associations of California and Union of Health Care Professionals say the strike is motivated by a need for better staffing levels, fair wages, and improved patient access to care.