Nursing Education & Patient Outcomes

You can obtain a degree in registered nursing by earning a two-year associate's degree at a community college or a nursing diploma by training for three to five years in a hospital along with some college courses. But, nursing advocacy organizations recommend that nursing candidates get a four-year bachelor of science degree. Although shorter training periods would help ease nursing shortages, patient safety and recovery rates are higher in hospitals where the majority of nurses have four-year degrees.

Academic Curriculum

• The four-year baccalaureate nursing program covers all of the content taught in the other two types of degrees but "provides students with a more in-depth study of the physical and social sciences, nursing research, nursing leadership and management, community and public health nursing, and the humanities," nurse Kimberly Johnson explains in a December 2009 Peoria Magazine article. This helps nurses understand the social, political, economic and financial issues that affect patients and health care, she adds.

Patient Recovery Rates

• An article in the September 24, 2003, issue of JAMA describes a study of post-surgery patient deaths in 168 Pennsylvania hospitals. Researchers found that patient mortality and failure to rescue (signs of patient's health deterioration) rates would be 19 percent lower in hospitals where 60 percent of nurses had at least a bachelor's degree than in those where only 20 percent of nurses did so. Another study in the December 2008 issue of the journal Psychiatric Services says that surgical patients with mental illnesses had better recovery rates and shorter hospital stays when the hospital had adequate nursing staff with high education levels.

Adaptability

• To reduce medical errors, physicians and nurses should make more use of personal digital assistants and other technology to monitor patient information and treatment, the International Journal of Medical Informatics says. Nurses who are well-trained before they begin treating patients are more likely to adopt such new tools easily than those with less experience, such as nursing diploma candidates, who learn most of the basics on the job.

Workload Issues

• Because nurses are in short supply, many must care for more patients per shift than had traditionally been the case. This workload stress coupled with the increasing complexity of the procedures and equipment used to treat patients calls for nurses who are highly trained. These nurses may also be better equipped to mentor and monitor colleagues from other countries who have language or cultural barriers that make it hard for them to adapt at first to U.S. hospitals' fast-paced environment.

Need for Nurse Practitioners

• Growing physician shortages are spurring the use of nurse practitioners, who have master's or doctorates in medical specialties. In consultation with doctors, they can examine, diagnose and prescribe for patients. The March 2010 health reform law, which will expand insurance coverage to about 35 million more people, will probably increase this trend. The more highly educated nurses are, the more routine treatment and preventive care they can provide, thus improving patient outcomes.