New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in . as well as across the country. Research has shown hospitals with nursing staff with a higher number of baccalaureate-prepared nurses have fewer deaths or poor outcomes, whether pneumonia, UTIs or patients being re-hospitalized within 30 days of discharge.  “A huge population of 232,000 patients demonstrated that for every 10% increase in the number of bachelor’s degree-prepared nurses, there was a 5% decrease in preventable deaths,” said nurse consultant Barbara Zittel, who began working on the creation of the bill in 2003 while serving as executive secretary of the New York State Board of Nursing.  She cites research published in 2003 by Linda Aiken and others in the Journal of the American Medical Association describing educational levels of hospital nurses and surgical mortality. That data prompted the New York State Board of Nursing to decide something needed to be done to increase the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees, Zittel said. With nearly 300,000 licensed RNs in New York, this one state may set a precedent for others attempting to pass similar legislation. Questions remain for nurses who may be concerned they are no longer valued or able to work.