Nursing Continuing Education Courses
Nurse to Patient Ratio Issues
Job Burnout and Quality Patient Care
HealthCMI will feature important nursing continuing education courses on quality of life factors for nurses. Nursing continuing education will focus on important roles that nurses can empower themselves with in the working environment. Look forward to nursing continuing education online at HealthCMI!
In one of the most interesting studies concerning the nursing profession (JAMA. 2002 Oct 23-30;288(16):1987-93), important results were tabulated concerning nurse to patient ratios. Research articles are often dry. Not this one. The opening description of the abstract notes, “The worsening hospital nurse shortage and recent California legislation mandating minimum hospital patient-to-nurse ratios demand an understanding of how nurse staffing levels affect patient outcomes and nurse retention in hospital practice.” The research was conducted by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania. The results showed, “each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 7% increase in the likelihood of dying within 30 days of admission and a 7% increase in the odds of failure-to-rescue. After adjusting for nurse and hospital characteristics, each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 23% increase in the odds of burnout and a 15% increase in the odds of job dissatisfaction.” The study was conclusive that the mortality rate for surgical patients is higher with fewer nurses per patient and job burnout for nurses increases as well.
