Nurse staffing makes a critical difference to patients. Research reveals a close link between inappropriate nurse staffing levels and higher rates of unwanted outcomes for patients. This report highlights evidence-informed recommendations for improvements in patient outcomes through advancements in nurse staffing. It blends findings from a decision-maker roundtable with the research report Evaluation of Patient Safety and Nurse Staffing, led by Amy Sanchez McCutcheon.iPatients are sicker today than in the past and need more specialized and acute care. Nurse staffing has not kept pace with this greater patient need, and in effect, due to the restructuring era of the 1990s, nurse staffing has deteriorated. Heavy workloads and stressful working conditions are affecting nurses’ ability to provide quality healthcare. Rather than thinking of nurse staffing as a management concern or an expense, it is time to recognize it as a key intervention that affects all other healthcare interventions. Therapies such as drugs, medical procedures, and health education cannot be effective if nurses are not there to provide them at the right time, in the right way, or at all. If the well-being of Canadians is a priority, then appropriate nurse staffing must be seen not as an onerous expense but as a cost-effective quality and safety intervention worthy of investment. Notably, improved nurse staffing has multiple beneficiaries: it benefits the patients through better health outcomes, and it supports nurses by increasing job satisfaction, reducing absenteeism, and encouraging retention.1 It also benefits hospitals and the healthcare system by reducing patients’ lengths of stay and therefore costs. One study concluded the savings from reduced lengths of stay would offset almost half of any increased labour costs.2 In this publicly funded system, advancements, efficiencies, and cost savings from improvements in the quality of care will benefit all Canadians