Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Needleman, J.
Right arrow Articles by Zelevinsky, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Needleman, J.
Right arrow Articles by Zelevinsky, K.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care in Hospitals in the United States

Jack Needleman

Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health

Peter Buerhaus

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing

Soeren Mattke

Health Policy Unit of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, France

Maureen Stewart

Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health

Katya Zelevinsky

Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health

The size and mix of nurse staffing in U.S. hospitals has a direct impact on the outcome of patient health according to a study based on discharge data for more than 6 million patients and financial reports and hospital staffing surveys from 799 hospitals in 11 states. The data were analyzed to determine staffing levels of RNs, licensed practicing/vocational nurses, and aides and to measure the frequency of a wide range of complications that patients developed during their hospital stays. Of the hospital inpatient nursing personnel studied, the study found that registered nurse staffing makes the biggest impact on adverse patient outcomes. The researchers found that lower levels of nurse staffing were associated with higher rates of urinary tract infections, pneumonia, shock and cardiac arrest, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, "failure to rescue," and length of hospital stay in both medical and major surgery patients treated in hospitals.

Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, Vol. 3, No. 4, 306-308 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/152715402237442
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?