• For every patient added to a nurse’s workload,
the likelihood of the patient dying increases by 7%.1
This means more patients die.
• Every patient added to a nurse’s workload increases
the likelihood of re-admission within 15-30 days:
• By 48% for a child admitted to surgery.
• By 11% for a child admitted for medical treatment.2
• Increasing the nursing time of
Registered Nurses by as little as
10% resulted in incidence of adverse
events decreasing by:
• 45% for central nervous system complications
• 37% for GI bleeding
• 34% for UTIs
• 27% for failure to rescue
• 19% for pressure ulcers
• 15% for sepsis
• 11% for pneumonia.3
• After implementing ratios in California,
Registered Nurses experienced a 31.6%
lower than expected rate of occupational
injuries and illnesses.4
• Every patient added to a nurse’s
workload increases:
• burnout by 23%
• job dissatisfaction by 15%.5
References:
[1] L. Aiken, D. Sloane, L. Bruyneel, K. Van den Heede, P. Griffiths, R. Busse, M. Diomidous, J. Kinnunen, M. Kozka, E. Lesaffre, M. McHugh, M. Moreno-Casbas, A. Rafferty, R. Schwendimann, P. Scott, C. Tishelman, T. Achterberg and W. Sermeus, “Nurse staffing and education and hospitalmortality in nine European countries: a retrospective observational study,” The Lancet, vol. 383, no. 9931, pp. 1824-1830, 2014.
[2] H. Tubbs-Cooley, J. Cimiotti, J. Silber, D. Sloane and L. Aiken, “An observational study of nurse staffing ratios and hospital readmission among children admitted for common conditions,” BMJ Quality and Safety, vol. 0, pp. 1-8, 2013.
[3] C. Duffield, M. Roche, L. O’Brien-Pallas, D. Diers, C. Aisbett, K. Aisbett, C. Homer (2009) “Nursing workload and staffing: impact on patients and staff”, Centre for Health Services Management, University of Technology Sydney.
[4] J. Leigh, C. Markis, A. Iosif, P. Romano (2015) “California’s nurse-to-patient ratio law and occupational injury,” International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, vol. 88, No. 4, pp. 477-484.
[5] L. Aiken, S. Clarke, D. Sloane, J. Sochalski, J. Silber (2002) “Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction”, The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 288, no. 16, pp 1987-1993.