SPRINGFIELD, Ill (WICS) — Illinois lawmakers are looking to create new protections for nurses.

SB2022 introduces a maximum number of patients that can be assigned per nurse…addressing what nurses said is a growing problem.

Along with creating new staffing regulations, SB2022 would require hospitals to create committees to make hospital-wide staffing plans and regularly meet to address nursing care.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee, a nursing union backing the bill, said despite increasing numbers of new nursing students, not all of those nurses are pursuing bedside or hospital positions.

"You hear a lot about oh we’re in a shortage. Well we’re not in a shortage. We have nurses that have left the bedside because things are very very difficult at the bedside,” Kellie Allen with St Louis University Hospital said.

Nurses said creating legislation that protects them can bring more nursing staff back into hospitals.

SB 2022 establishes a committee to review patient outcomes, complaints regarding staff, overtime, and more to make it easier for nurses to help patients.

"All the data that you look at shows that when you have a good nurse to patient ratio, and you’re meeting a standard with those, that you have much better outcomes for your patients,” Allen said.

ALONG with being outnumbered by patients, nurses also face workplace violence.

One National Library of Medicine study said 62% of the study’s participants reported experiencing workplace violence…which contributes to an unsafe working environment.

Nurses said violence is only part of the problem, and many also face issues with hospitals being short staffed.

"Hospitals that don’t, they might run one nurse to seven patients. It’s dangerous, you know. People are waiting hours sometimes for things to be addressed for them. Nurses make more mistakes when they’re rushed and hurried,” Allen said.

Nurses from one hospital in Chicago told NewsChannel 20 they rarely take lunches.

"We’ve had, what, 15,000 missed meal breaks in the ER alone in the last year from nurses not being able to get to lunch because they are trying to care for so many patients that they don’t have the time,” Carolyn Freeman, Chief Nursing Representative at Ingalls Hospital said.

Nurses told NewsChannel 20 that the funding already exists to support nurses within hospitals…and they said improving nurse turnover through bills like these will save hospitals money.

NewsChannel 20 reached out to local hospitals for their statements on the bill…we’re still waiting on those responses.

Under the bill, registered nurses cannot be assigned to a unit without demonstrated ability to provide care in that area.

It also includes anti-retaliation measures for employees that report hospitals in violation of the bill.

Staffing plans would include the number of patients, complexity of care, and identification of additional staff when patient needs exceed the planned workload.