A study in the British Medical Journal says that short-staffing of hospital nurses can hike patient-mortality rates by 20 percent and that a nurse should not be responsible for more than six patients at a time.
Nurse advocates have long argued that improved staffing ratios substantially improves patient safety.
The researchers found that for nurses with at least 10 patients, risk of patient death is 20 percent higher than for patients whose nurses have caseloads of six or fewer.
FierceHealthcare said the results “back up similar research conducted in the U.S., including a 2013 study that found nursing staff ratios directly affect readmissions at pediatric hospitals. Nurses in several states, including New Jersey, Minnesota and Oregon, have lobbied extensively to impose mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios, while opponents of such measures have argued hospitals can achieve similar improvements at lower cost.”
