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The Information in the News Release is Under Embargo Until 23:30hrs UK time / 6:30pm EST on Tuesday 11th May.
Newswise — Philadelphia (EMBARGOED UNTIL May 11, 2021 at 6:30 PM EST) –A new study published in The Lancet today showed that a policy establishing minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in hospitals in Queensland, Australia saved lives, prevented readmissions, shortened hospital stays, and reduced costs.
The study, by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and the Queensland University of Technology School of Nursing, evaluated legislation enacted in 2016 as a safety measure. The new policy limited the average number of patients per nurse to four, similar to pending legislation in New York and Illinois. “The positive results in Queensland should inform policies in the U.S. and elsewhere,” said lead-author Matthew McHugh, PhD, the Independence Chair for Nursing Education and CHOPR Director.
The researchers collected extensive data before and after the legislation from about 17,000 nurses and analyzed of outcomes for more than 400,000 patients. They found that:
- There was a clear need for a safe hospital nurse staffing standard. Before the policy was in place, nurse staffing levels varied significantly across Queensland hospitals. In some facilities, nurses cared for as few as three patients on adult medical and surgical wards, while nurses at other facilities were responsible for as many as 10 patients each.
- The policy led to better nurse staffing in the intervention hospitals. While staffing levels remained the same before and after the policy in comparison hospitals, the medical-surgical nurses at the intervention hospitals saw average reductions in their workload of nearly one patient per nurse, with some having three fewer assigned patients after policy implementation.
- The staffing improvements stimulated by the policy led to better outcomes for patients. The researchers estimated that intervention hospitals had 145 fewer deaths, 255 fewer readmissions, and 29,222 fewer hospital days than if they had not implemented the policy.
- The policy yielded a good return on investment for the public. In addition to better quality of care and patient outcomes, the savings due to fewer readmissions and shorter lengths of stay in hospitals was about $70 million (AUD), more than twice the cost of the additional nurse staffing.
The findings are consistent with a substantial body of evidence on the positive effects on patient outcomes when nurses have a reasonable number of patients in their care. There is similarly strong evidence that when staffing levels improve, nurses experience less burnout and job dissatisfaction, which are key drivers to costly turnover and result in nurses leaving their careers at the bedside. The study’s release coincides with International Nurses Day.
McHugh, who is also a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn, said “These results are all the more relevant in the context of COVID-19, which has pushed an already strained and burned-out hospital nurse workforce to the brink. Minimum safeguards to ensure that there are enough nurses to provide high-quality care to every patient is a simple but effective public safety measure.”
QUT Faculty of Health Executive Dean, Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates, said the publication illustrated the value of research that had real-world impact.
“This research is a clear example of good public health policy in Queensland being derived from evidence-based research,” said Professor. “The result benefits the health system, nurses, patients and the public at large.”
The study was carried out by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology. Funding and support for the study was from Queensland Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research/NIH, and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world’s leading schools of nursing. For the sixth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.
About the Queensland University of Technology
QUT is a major Australian university with a global reputation and a ‘real world’ focus. Our courses equip our students and graduates with the skills they need for the world of today and tomorrow. We are an ambitious institution, with a rapidly growing research output focused on technology and innovation. The Times Higher Education 2020 ranked QUT in the top 180 universities in the world and the best young university in Australia. QUT has been named one of the fastest rising universities in the world, and top in Australia, for scientific research in the 2019’s Nature Index of high-quality research outputs.
About the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
Since 1967, the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (Penn LDI) has been the leading university institute dedicated to data-driven, policy-focused research that improves our nation’s health and health care. Penn LDI’s priority areas include (1) health care access and coverage; (2) health equity; (3) improving care for older adults; (4) opioid epidemic; and (5) population health. Penn LDI connects all twelve of Penn’s schools, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia through its more than 300 Senior Fellows. Learn more at https://ldi.upenn.edu.
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