Some adverse events are sensitive to aspects of nursing care, including pressure injuries, falls, hospital-acquired urinary tract infections, and medication administration errors. This retrospective study, based on patient discharge data from three Irish hospitals, characterized nursing-sensitive adverse events and associated costs. Results indicate that 16% of patients experienced at least one nurse-sensitive adverse event during their inpatient stay and that each additional nurse-sensitive adverse event was associated with a significant increase in length of stay. Extrapolated nationally, the authors estimate the economic burden of nurse-sensitive adverse events to the Irish health system to be €91.3 million annually.

… of adequate nursing to ensure safe acute care. … Griffiths P, Maruotti A, Recio Saucedo A, et al. Nurse …

Missed nursing care has been linked to safety problems, but ensuring reliable levels of nurse staffing remains challenging. This report provides the results of a 3-year investigation into whether tracking of vital signs by nursing staff could serve as a viable measure for safe patient coverage. The report identified correlations between low staffing, missed vital sign observation, length of stay, and likelihood of mortality. However, record review found no direct relationship between safety and staffing levels. A PSNet perspective examined the relationship between missed nursing care and patient safety.

… of missed nursing care in a recent PSNet perspective . … Griffiths P, Recio-Saucedo A, Dall'Ora C, et al. The …

… important issues associated with nurse staffing ratios. … Ball JE, Bruyneel L, Aiken LH, et al. Post-operative …

Researchers analyzed patient discharge data and hospital characteristics, as well as patient and nurse survey data, across adult acute care hospitals in six European countries. After adjusting for hospital and patient variables, they found that hospitals in which nursing care was provided to a greater degree by skilled nurses had lower odds of mortality. The authors argue against replacing professional nurses with nursing assistants and suggest that doing so may compromise patient safety by increasing preventable deaths.

This study expands on analyses and conclusions from published findings exploring the effects of moving to a new hospital with 100% single room accommodations. The researchers used nonequivalent controls by comparing results to a hospital that had not changed buildings but planned to do so (steady state control) and a hospital that moved to a new building with fewer than 50% single rooms (new build control). Falls, pressure ulcers, and Clostridium difficile infections increased in the older patients' ward after the move to single rooms. However, there was also a significant change in the case mix on this ward following the move, which may have explained these changes in adverse events. On the acute assessment unit, falls and medication errors temporarily increased for the first 6 months but then returned to prior rates. The authors found neither clear evidence of benefit nor increased risk of harm attributable to moving to all single room accommodations.

This study used robust research methods to examine the expected and unanticipated effects of moving to all single-occupancy inpatient rooms. The accompanying editorial points out that on the surface this seems like a common sense intervention likely to improve patient experience and safety. However, this study demonstrates the complex effects even seemingly straightforward interventions can create. Although two-thirds of patients preferred the single rooms, some patients felt more isolated and lonely. Staff expressed concerns about worsened visibility, surveillance, teamwork, and monitoring. In addition, staff workflows had to change significantly and their hourly walking distances increased substantially. There was no evidence that single rooms reduced infections. Although fall rates increased following the move, the researchers felt that based on the patterns and comparison to the control hospital, this may not have been attributable to the single rooms. As the editorial highlights, this study supports the importance of vigorously evaluating a range of impact measures, including quality, safety, costs, and staff and patient experiences.

Although 12-hour nursing shifts are common in the United States, this study found that only 15% of European nurses worked 12 hours or more. Similar to prior research, longer nursing shifts were associated with lower quality of care and compromised patient safety. This study also found that nurses working extended shifts reported more care left undone. Nurses who worked overtime, even if shift length was less than 10 hours, described similar concerns. The authors warn that policies to adopt standard 12-hour nursing shifts as a cost-effective way of maintaining nurse–patient ratios may contribute to burnout. A past AHRQ WebM&M interview with Barbara Blakeney discussed the importance of proper nursing staffing for patient safety, and a prior AHRQ WebM&M commentary examines the complexities around balancing nurse staffing and workload.

This retrospective cohort study across nine European countries revealed that higher patient–nurse staffing ratios increased the likelihood of inpatient mortality. A larger proportion of nurses with bachelor's degrees decreased this risk, consistent with previous research that found a relationship between nurse education levels and patient outcomes. This finding emphasizes the importance of maintaining an adequately staffed and trained nursing workforce to support safety in hospitals.

Nurses are frequently forced to prioritize tasks during busy shifts, leading to some nursing care being left undone. In this multinational European study, nurses most frequently omitted time-intensive but critical practices such as talking with, educating, and providing comfort for patients.

… patient safety is explored in a Patient Safety Primer . … Ball JE, Murrells T, Rafferty AM, Morrow E, Griffiths P. 'Care left undone' during nursing shifts: …

Seminal studies in the United States have shown strong associations between nurses' working conditions and patient safety, with high patient-to-nurse ratios and greater patient turnover being linked to increased mortality. This multinational survey of nurses and patients found that improved nurse work environments and reduced patient-to-nurse ratios were linked to better perceptions of quality and patient satisfaction. Moderately strong correlations were found between patient satisfaction and nursing reports of care quality, although there were wide variations in both measures across different countries. This study lends additional support to the view that improving the work environment for nurses can strengthen patient safety.