For more than two decades nurses have advocated for so-called “nurse-staffing limits” — caps on the number of patients a single nurse in a hospital can be assigned to manage at one time. There have been bills introduced on the federal level, but so far California is the only state to have the nurse-staffing limits in place. The hospital industry bitterly fought the limits in California, and has successfully fought it everywhere else since.
I think it's an excellent comparison between education class-size limits and medical nursing staff-ratio limits. The (neoliberal) politics are very similar - a workforce made of primarily of women (as you note) and people of color, "hinders needed flexibility" meaning giving management/capital the whip hand to order staff around and fire them at will (absolutely no research showing this improves outcomes in either education or health care, to my knowledge). You're also right about the use of "mixed research evidence" as an excuse for not improving working conditions in education and health care. I don't know about medical care, but in education the research evidence on just about any topic is "mixed" at best. There's more evidence in favor of class size reductions improving educational outcomes than many other reforms preferred by neoliberals and economists.
I think it's an excellent comparison between education class-size limits and medical nursing staff-ratio limits. The (neoliberal) politics are very similar - a workforce made of primarily of women (as you note) and people of color, "hinders needed flexibility" meaning giving management/capital the whip hand to order staff around and fire them at will (absolutely no research showing this improves outcomes in either education or health care, to my knowledge). You're also right about the use of "mixed research evidence" as an excuse for not improving working conditions in education and health care. I don't know about medical care, but in education the research evidence on just about any topic is "mixed" at best. There's more evidence in favor of class size reductions improving educational outcomes than many other reforms preferred by neoliberals and economists.