NYS Nurses Association
Safe Staffing Resource Center: Staffing Research
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Major academic research studies back up what front-line nurses know from our own experience: safe nurse-to-patient ratios save lives.
Article: Implications of the California nurse staffing mandate for other states (.pdf; Adobe Acrobat Reader required) - Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D.M., Cimiotti, J.P., Clarke, S.P., Flynn, L., Seago, J.A., Spetz, J. & Smith, H.L. (2010). Health Service Research, 45(4), 904-921.
A recent study from researcher Linda Aiken, Ph.D, RN, looked at 22,336 surveys from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California – the only state with legislated nurse-to-patient ratios. Here’s what they found:
- “Nurses in California care for an average of one fewer patient each, and these lower ratios have sizeable effect on surgical patient mortality.”
- “Outcomes are better for nurses and patients in hospitals that meet a benchmark on California nurse staffing mandates.”
- “...the higher the percentage compliance with benchmark based on California ratios, regardless of the hospital state location, the less likely nurses are to report complaints from patients or families, verbal abuse of nurses by staff or patients, quality of care that is poor or only fair, and lack of confidence that their patients can manage after discharge.”