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Hundreds of nurses have begun arriving in Tallahassee for a two day meeting and rally to protest hospital workloads.

The nurses say they are sometimes caring for as many as 8 or 9 patients when studies show 4 patients per nurse is the optimal ratio. Mary Beth Harrod of Miami says hiring more nurses will actually drive down the cost of health care.

“There is even further research showing that the costs of adding another nurse to the staff is far less than the cost of managing the negative outcomes when the patients get secondary infections, or complications, or even die, because of something they obtained in the hospital,” Harrod said.

More than a thousand nurses are expected for a noon Rally on Wednesday.