New Research Links Overworked Nurses to Poorer Patient Care
When nurses are burned out, patients are the ones who suffer -- at least according to a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania.
August 11, 2012
For years, as cash-strapped hospitals have slashed staffing budgets to pad the bottom line, nurses have protested that fewer of them translates into more hospital errors. A new study seems to back up this reasoning, although perhaps not for the reasons you may expect.Nurse Burnout Causes Infections in Thousands of Pennsylvanians Every Year
In the past, low hospital staffing has simply been thought of as a numbers game -- fewer caregivers provide a lower standard of care. But, the recent research shows that the effect of subpar staffing levels runs much deeper: it creates a bad work environment that may eventually cause nurses to burnout on their jobs, further reducing the quality of patient care.
In a study published in the August 2012 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania looked at more than 7,000 registered nurses at 161 hospitals across the state. Specifically, they examined how nurse burnout affected the two most common healthcare-associated infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections and surgical site infections.
On average, each nurse in the study cared for 5.7 patients. But, in hospitals where nurse workloads were increased by just one patient above the average, an extra one in every 1,000 patients suffered from a healthcare-associated infection.
In addition to the short-term effects on patient safety, over time, these higher workloads also appeared to lead to nurse burnout. As measured by a well-established psychology battery, more than a third of nurses in the study quailed as being "burned out." Every 10 percent increase in the level of nurse burnout was associated with one additional catheter-associated infection and two additional surgical site infections per 1,000 patients.
Stress buildup can get to a point where "all of a sudden [nurses] are doing work, but they are not even cognizant of what they are doing," the study's lead author Jeannie Cimiotti told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The effect of nurse burnout is far reaching. If overall burnout among nurses could be cut from the current 30 percent to 10 percent, the authors of the study estimate that 4,160 infections could be prevented in Pennsylvania hospitals every year, at a savings of $41 million.
"It is costing hospitals more money not to spend money on nursing," Linda Aiken, another author of the study, said to The Inquirer.
Harmed By a Hospital-Acquired Infection? Talk To a Pennsylvania Med Mal Attorney
Healthcare-associated infections are a serious threat to patients, and if you have acquired one as a result of insufficient staffing levels, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorney today to learn more about your right to monetary recovery in the wake of hospital negligence.
Article provided by Ronald J. Bua & Associates
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