Nurse Staffing Ratios and Patient Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between nurse staffing ratios and patient outcomes. This investigation studied the relationships among nursing quality indicators of patient care; that is structure, process, and outcome indicators of patient care. The structure, process, and outcome indicators that were measured in this study, suggest that the proportion of Registered Nurses is a critical element in evaluating patient outcomes. As demonstrated in the study results, a higher Nursing Care Hours Per Patient Day at first sight in fact, may represent a lower proportion of Registered Nurses and not necessarily better patient outcomes. The results demonstrated that adequate nurse staffing and appropriate skill mix is a very important factor to take into consideration when making critical staffing decisions.