How Does Nurse Staffing Affect Patient Outcomes?

It is axiomatic that the nurse staffing levels of hospital units have a significant impact upon patient outcomes. The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators draws a direct link between the supply of nursing staff and both positive and negative outcomes for individual patients.

Adequate Staffing Improves Outcomes

• Given the role of nurses in caring for patients, it is intuitive that adequate staffing will provide for better outcomes. In one study, Linda Aiken and her colleagues concluded that "substantial decreases in mortality rates could result from increasing registered nurse staffing."

Understaffed Unit Negative Patient Outcomes

• Conversely, when there are too few nurses to adequately care for patients, negative patient outcomes are the result. According to a study from the Department of Health and Human Services, these can include "urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia, shock, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, longer hospital stays, failure to rescue, and 30-day mortality."

Government Mandated Staffing

• This issue has made such an impact upon public health policy that lawmakers in many states (e.g., California, Massachusetts and others) have mandated specific nurse-to-patient ratios to address "a growing concern that patients are being harmed by inadequate staffing related to increasing severity of illness and complexity of care."