News: Insufficient nurse staffing linked with patient mortality risk, study finds

A correlation was found between inadequate hospital nurse staffing and an increased risk of patient death, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. The study found that each day of low nurse staffing was associated with an increased risk of death within 30 days of admission, as was each day of low nurse support staffing, MedPage Today reported.

The study used data from over 600,000 hospitalized patients in 185 wards across four acute hospital trusts in England from April 2015 to March 2020. Patients were eligible if they had an overnight stay and nursing staff on adult inpatient units.

Researchers found that increasing the proportion of temporary RNs by 10% was associated with a 2.3% jump in the risk of death, and no differences were observed between nurses hired through external agencies and temporary staff employed by the hospital. There was also a 4% increase in risk of death associated with a 10% increase in the proportion of agency nurse support. Researchers noted the similar results between temporary staff and staff from external agencies showed that leveraging a hospital's own staff doesn't really solve staffing problems. In the results, the researchers reference previous studies that suggest temporary staffing can be risky for patients thanks to such staff being unfamiliar with the care setting and disrupting care continuity.

The researchers also noted one limitation to the study was the fact that they focused on a single outcome, since "low staffing is known to have adverse effects on a range of outcomes for patients, quality of care, and staff."

Editor’s note: To read MedPage Today’s coverage of this story, click here. To read the JAMA Network Open study, click here.