Study Links Nurse Burnout to Increased Risk of Infection

A new study has linked heavy patient loads and other stresses of nursing jobs to an increased risk of infections.

2013-01-05

January 05, 2013 (Press-News.org) Heavy patient loads and burnout have long been an unfortunate reality for nurses at hospitals nationwide. However, a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing concluded that these problems can affect patient health by causing an increased risk of infection.

The study surveyed 7,000 registered nurses working in 161 hospitals in Pennsylvania. The nurses were asked questions designed to track factors such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and whether he or she felt a sense of personal accomplishment from the work. The study found that almost one-third of nurses exhibited high levels of job burnout.

The study also found that each nurse cared for an average of 5.7 patients each. When one additional patient was added to the load, there was an additional infection per every 1,000 patients. The study hypothesized that overworked and burned out nurses may become distracted and forget to wash their hands regularly or take other routine hygienic measures.

Nationwide, there is no system that tracks nurse-to-patient ratios. Patient loads vary from as low as one nurse for every two patients in intensive care units to much higher--such as the five or six patients per nurse that the participants had in this study.

In addition to the higher likelihood of infection, nurse burnout has a financial cost. The study found that the average cost of treating a catheter infection ranged from $742 to $832. More serious infections such as surgical site infections cost significantly more, ranging from $11,087 to $29,443. If nurse burnout could be decreased by as little as 10 percent, the study projected that it would lead to a significant decrease in infections and save $41 million per year.

Like their colleagues nationwide, nurses in Kentucky are not immune from the problems caused by short staffing and the demands of their job. Because of their level of interaction with the patient, any nursing error, regardless of the reason, can be catastrophic.

Under Kentucky law, nurses, like all other medical professionals, must provide care that meets a certain minimum standard of care. If a nurse fails to do this, it can constitute negligence, making the nurse and the hospital potentially liable for the patient's injury or death. If you or a loved one has been injured because of a nursing error, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney, who can work to protect your right to compensation.

Article provided by Dolt, Thompson, Shepherd, Kinney & Wilt, P.S.C.
Visit us at www.kentuckytrial.net

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Transportation Accidents Leading Cause of Illinois Workplace Fatalities

2013-01-05

Television dramas often portray the lives of those who work in dangerous jobs. The recent series "Chicago Fire" follows firefighters as they risk their lives to save others and limit property damage. Several years ago, the series "Chicago Code" was all about crime fighting and the dangers associated with law enforcement. While firefighting and law enforcement are dangerous professions, they are by no means the most dangerous jobs in Chicago. Less glamorous jobs are often where accidents occur and lives are lost. For example, a worker cleaning a ...

Data Shows New York DWI Drivers are Circumventing IID Requirements

2013-01-05

Under New York's 2009 "Leandra's Law," every person convicted of driving while intoxicated in New York, or DWI, is required to install an Ignition Interlocking Device (IID) on his or her car. However, the data shows that only three of every 10 people (23,000 people statewide) ordered to install the device have actually done so. While many have chosen simply to forgo driving, several DWI offenders have scoffed at court orders and continue to get behind the wheel of a car. What is an IID? An IID is a device that attaches to a vehicle's ignition system ...

How to Safeguard Your Company's Trade Secrets

2013-01-05

Intellectual property might be in the form of trade secrets. This includes include any method, formula or information that creates a competitive benefit. Under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the law protects a trade secret only to the extent that the owner has made "efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy." For this reason, it is imperative to demonstrate that your company recognized your specific formula, method or information as a trade secret. As a trade secret owner, you do not want to make the mistake of waiting until ...

Sexual Harassment Training May Reduce Exposure to Employer Liability

2013-01-05

Employers can minimize their exposure to liability in sexual harassment claims by implementing effective sexual discrimination training for supervisory and non-supervisory employees. Harassment in the workplace can result in drawn out litigation and vicarious liability for an employer when proper training and procedures are not in place. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful to discriminate against an individual, because of an individual's race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Sexual harassment is one form of sex discrimination, which can ...

Washington Aims to Eliminate Fatal Traffic Accidents on the State's Roads

2013-01-05

The Washington State Patrol and the Washington Traffic Safety Commission have joined with municipal law enforcement agencies to implement a program known as "Target Zero." "Target Zero" (TZ) is a public safety-based education and awareness program with the stated goal of reducing the state's annual traffic fatality rate to zero by the year 2030. What is the program? The TZ program is designed to increase driver awareness of the most common causes of motor vehicle accidents in the state as well as the types of driver behaviors that contribute to ...

Start Your Successful New Year with Glamour Nail Vending

2013-01-05

www.glamournailvending.com Glamour Nail Vending has developed a one of a kind product that everyone wants - and they have the sales history to prove it. The company have merged advanced technology with traditional vending to allow users to print nail art directly onto their nails in less than a minute. In 2012, their first year of sales, the company has already appointed distributors to 28 territories worldwide, with more being appointed each week. The nail industry had revenue of $7.3 billion in 2012 and it is looking even more attractive for 2013. With Glamour Nail ...

A New Year's gift from NASA and Penn State

2013-01-04

A large new collection of space photos taken at wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye and blocked by Earth's atmosphere has been released as a New Year's gift to the people of Earth by NASA and Penn State University. The images were captured by a telescope on board NASA's Swift satellite, whose science and flight operations are controlled by Penn State from the Mission Operations Center in State College, Pennsylvania, using the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, which resulted from Penn State's collaboration with the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of the University ...

Pesticides and Parkinson's: UCLA researchers uncover further proof of a link

2013-01-04

For several years, neurologists at UCLA have been building a case that a link exists between pesticides and Parkinson's disease. To date, paraquat, maneb and ziram — common chemicals sprayed in California's Central Valley and elsewhere — have been tied to increases in the disease, not only among farmworkers but in individuals who simply lived or worked near fields and likely inhaled drifting particles. Now, UCLA researchers have discovered a link between Parkinson's and another pesticide, benomyl, whose toxicological effects still linger some 10 years after the chemical ...

Induction of adult cortical neurogenesis by an antidepressant

2013-01-04

The production of new neurons in the adult normal cortex in response to the antidepressant, fluoxetine, is reported in a study published online this week in Neuropsychopharmacology. The research team, which is based at the Institute for Comprehensive Medical Science, Fujita Health University, Aichi, has previously demonstrated that neural progenitor cells exist at the surface of the adult cortex, and, moreover, that ischemia enhances the generation of new inhibitory neurons from these neural progenitor cells. These cells were accordingly named "Layer 1 Inhibitory Neuron ...

Research shows that a prolonged fertility window can cause recurrent miscarriage

2013-01-04

Researchers at Warwick Medical School have discovered that recurrent pregnancy loss can be due to a dysfunctional monthly fertility window. The study, led by Professor Jan Brosens and Professor Siobhan Quenby of the Division of Reproductive Health, sheds new light on the mechanisms that determine the timing and duration of the fertility window and how that may increase the chances of miscarriage. The release of the cytokine IL-33 and the activation of its receptor (ST2) in cells in the uterus induces an inflammatory response that controls the stage that we are familiar ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Loneliness is bad for health and wealth in the U.K.

Oral health treatment in patients due for surgery is associated with significantly lower rates of postoperative pneumonia and shorter hospital stays, per observational study in one Japanese hospital,

Oxygen came late to ocean depths during Paleozoic

Among women suffering hyperemesis (extreme nausea and vomiting) in pregnancy, half report considering terminating their pregnancy, and 9 in 10 have considered having no more children

New study seeks to understand the links between social drivers of health by investigating cardiovascular health in young adults

Safe, practical underground carbon storage could reduce warming by only 0.7°C – almost 10 times less than previously thought

[Press-News.org] Study Links Nurse Burnout to Increased Risk of Infection
A new study has linked heavy patient loads and other stresses of nursing jobs to an increased risk of infections.