Elsevier

Nursing Outlook

Volume 66, Issue 3, May–June 2018, Pages 273-282
Nursing Outlook

Nurse staffing and nurse outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.12.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Greater nurse-to-patient ratio was consistently associated with the high degree of burnout of nurses.

  • An increase of one patient per RN ratio was associated with an 8% increase in odds of job dissatisfaction.

  • Nurses' intention to leave was increased 1.05 times when nurse-to-patient ratio was increased by 1.

  • Results of this meta-analysis showed that the effect size for nurse's job dissatisfaction was higher than that for nurse's burnout or intent to leave.

  • Findings of our study demonstrate that the greater nurse-to-patient ratio was related to negative nurse outcomes.

Abstract

Background

A great number of studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between nurse staffing and patient outcomes. However, none of the reviews have rigorously assessed the evidence about the effect of nurse staffing on nurse outcomes through meta-analysis.

Purpose

The purpose of this review was to systematically assess empirical studies on the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse outcomes through meta-analysis.

Methods

Published peer-reviewed articles published between January 2000 and November 2016 were identified in CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, EBSCO, RISS, and DBpia databases.

Findings

This meta-analysis showed that greater nurse-to-patient ratio was consistently associated with higher degree of burnout among nurses (odds ratio: 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04–1.11), increased job dissatisfaction (odds ratio: 1.08; 95% CI: 1.04–1.11), and higher intent to leave (odds ratio: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.02–1.07). With respect to needlestick injury, the overall effect size was 1.33 without statistical significance.

Discussion

The study findings demonstrate that higher nurse-to-patient ratio is related to negative nurse outcomes. Future studies assessing the optimal nurse-to-patient ratio level in relation to nurse outcomes are needed to reduce adverse nurse outcomes and to help retain nursing staff in hospital settings.

Introduction

Hospital nursing staff provides holistic care to patients and their families for 24 hours a day. Suboptimal nurse staffing such as lower staffing levels, greater use of nurse overtime, high use of temporary nursing staff, and high turnover often occur because of nursing shortage (Bae, Kelly, Brewer, & Spencer, 2014). Such suboptimal nurse staffing in hospitals can affect the quality of patient care and nurses' health and well-being (Nantsupawat, Nantsupawat, Kulnaviktikul, & McHugh, 2015).

In recent years, the International Council of Nurses, International Hospital Federation, and other International Health professional associations emphasized a Positive Practice Environments (PPE) campaign to prevent aggravating nursing shortages and to ensure the health, safety, and personal well-being of health professionals including nurses (World Health Organization, 2010). According to the PPE campaign, a safe nurse staffing level, which is one of the elements of PPE in health-care services, leads to a higher retention rate and overall job satisfaction (World Health Organization, 2010). In fact, several countries including South Korea are currently implementing a nurse staffing policy to regulate nurse staffing levels. In the United States, many state legislatures have approved nurse staffing policies that incorporate one or more of the following strategies: (a) mandated nurse-to-patient ratios (California), (b) mandated nurse staffing committees (e.g., Texas), or (c) mandated disclosure of hospital nurse staffing level (e.g., New York) (Jones, Bae, Murry, & Hamilton, 2015). In South Korea, a financial incentive policy on nurse staffing, namely, the nursing fee differentiation policy (NFDP), has been implemented since 1999 (Kim, 2007). This NFDP consists of a seven-nurse staffing grade system, and each grade reflects the average number of bed per nurse in general hospitals (Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, 2017). All of these nurse staffing policies aim to improve the positive practice environment in health-care services to ensure appropriate levels of nurse staffing.

Nurse staffing is often measured by either staffing level or staffing mix, or both. Nurse staffing levels consist of a total number of nurses or nursing care hours per patient volume (e.g., number of beds or patient days). The nurse-to-patient ratio (or the patient-to-nurse ratio) and the total nursing hours per patient days (NHPPD) are often used to measure nurse staffing level. With respect to staffing mix, registered nurse (RN) staffing ratio is often used to represent the proportion of RNs in the total number of nursing staff, which include RNs, licensed practice nurse (LPN), and nurse aids. It often shows the nursing professional skill mix. Another nurse staffing measure is subjective nurse staffing adequacy using nurses' perception regarding nurse staffing (Aiken, Clarke, & Sloane, 2002). The nurse staffing policy in several countries is implemented based on the nurse-to-patient ratio (e.g., California).

A great number of studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between nurse staffing and patient outcomes. It has been shown that lower nurse-to-patient ratio (better nurse staffing) and RN skill mix are related to better quality of patient care (Aiken et al, 2011, Kalisch et al, 2012, Staggs et al, 2012). Through meta-analysis, Kane and colleagues (Kane, Shamliyan, Mueller, Duval, & Wilt, 2007) have found that increased RN staffing is associated with lower hospital mortality rate, hospital acquired pneumonia, unplanned extubation, respiratory failure, and cardiac arrest in intensive care units. Therefore, relatively conclusive relationships between nurse staffing and patient outcomes have been identified.

With respect to nurse outcomes, researchers have found that lower nurse staffing is associated with higher nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction (Aiken et al, 2008, Kim, 2007, Nantsupawat et al, 2015, Sheward et al, 2005), and intent to leave (Aiken et al, 2012, Cho et al, 2009). Low nurse staffing is also related to needlestick injury (Clarke et al, 2002, Nantsupawat et al, 2015). However, a study of nurses in Finland showed that nurse staffing is not related to job satisfaction and job stress (Tervo-Heikkinen, Kiviniemi, Partanen, & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, 2009). However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the reviews have rigorously or systematically assessed the evidence about the effect of nurse staffing or specific nurse staffing levels on nurse outcomes through meta-analysis. Because of variations in nurse staffing measures among studies, study findings from these studies should be systematically evaluated to draw a conclusion on the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse outcomes.

Therefore, the current review conducted a systematic assessment of empirical studies to examine the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse outcomes. Based on systematic reviews, we found that the majority of studies used the nurse-to-patient ratios to measure nurse staffing. Nurse outcomes included in this study were rather adverse nurse outcomes, including nurse burnout, job dissatisfaction, intent to leave, and needlestick injuries. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the association between the nurse-to-patient ratios and the nurse outcomes, mainly nurse injuries and well-being. The results of this study can provide evidence for developing guidelines on the nurse-to-patient ratio in hospitals to prevent adverse nurse outcomes and to promote nurses' health and well-being.

Section snippets

Design

This study reviewed published studies that examined the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse outcomes in hospitals. However, these studies varied in terms of their study design, outcome variables, and analytical approaches. Therefore, only a subset of reviewed articles was included in the meta-analysis. To ensure methodological rigor, a systematic five-step approach was used, and it consisted of problem formulation, literature search, data evaluation, data analysis, and presentation as

Study Characteristics

A total of 52 potentially relevant articles were identified using the search strategy described above, of which 13 cross-sectional studies met the inclusion criteria (Figure 1). Six (46.2%) of these 13 studies used probability sampling. Samples in all studies were drawn from more than one site. Nurse staffing variables were often measured by the nurse-to-patient ratio, which was established by the number of patients the nurses cared for in their last work shift using the nurse survey or by the

Discussion

This review focused on synthesizing studies that examined the relationship between nurse staffing and nurse outcomes. Nurse staffing was measured by the nurse-to-patient ratio and nurse staffing grade. Based on our findings in the meta-analysis, an increase in patient per RN ratio was associated with an increase in the likelihood of three adverse nurse outcomes out of four outcomes. Even if there is an inconsistency regarding the research methods among studies, we found a consistent

Acknowledgments

Editorial support for the manuscript was provided by Ewha Womans University. Dr Jungbok Lee provided statistical analysis and suggestions on draft manuscript.

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    The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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