Patients are more likely to die after routine surgical procedures at hospitals with fewer nurses educated to degree level, reports [s]The Guardian[/s]. An analysis of more than 400,000 European patient records also found that hospitals where there were fewer patients per nurse had lower death rates.
The study, the largest investigation of nursing and hospital outcomes in Europe to date, was carried out by a number of universities in Europe and the US, and is published in [s]The Lancet[/s]. It found that every extra patient added to a nurse’s workload increases a patient’s chance of dying within 30 days of being admitted for surgery by 7%. However, every 10% increase in the number of nurses who held a degree was linked with a 7% decrease in the risk of death.
[link url=http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/26/nurse-cutbacks-death-rates-data-staffing]Full report in The Guardian[/link]
[link url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)62631-8/abstract]The Lancet abstract: Nurse Staffing, Education and Hospital Mortality[/link]
[link url=http://download.thelancet.com/flatcontentassets/audio/lancet/2014/27february.mp3]The Lancet Podcast on the research[/link]