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Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Laws: Part 1

By Beth Janicek

A study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, recently published it's results on nurse-to-patient ratio safety research. In 1999, California signed a law requiring a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio for specific units in all general acute-care hospitals, with the ratios phased in from 2004 to 2008. The law has reduced the deaths from common surgeries, allowed nurses to spend more time with patients and helped hospitals retain nurses.

The study surveyed 22,336 nurses in California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Researchers compared deaths from common surgeries in California from 2005 to 2006 to surgical deaths in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, two states that don't have nurse-to patient ratio laws. Linda Aiken, RN, the lead author of the study and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, said

'In these two states, 468 lives might have been saved over the two-year period – just among general surgery patients – if the California nurse staffing levels were adopted.' She explains the decline in California's mortality, 'Nurses are the main surveillance system in hospitals. Nurses detect the majority of complications; the majority of medication errors that are detected by anyone are detected by nurses first…All hospitalized patients are likely to benefit from improved nurse staffing, not just general surgery patients. The potential number of lives that could be saved by improving nurse staffing in hospitals is likely to be many thousands a year.'

According to the study, California hospital nurses cared for one less patient on average than nurses in the other states and two fewer patients on medical and surgical units. The staffing ratios allows nurses to spend more time on patient education, have more job satisfaction, higher quality of care, and less burnout resulting in higher nurse retention.

The report, published in the journal Health and Services Research, is the first comprehensive evaluation of California's controversial nurse staffing ratio mandate, and may help 18 other states considering lowering their nurse-staff ratios decide.

In Texas, the laws say that you must have enough nurses to adequately care for the patient. Not having set staffing ratios is unenforceable, which makes it difficult to cite facilities that are understaffed.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on April 30, 2010 (boomark / email).