Exploring the Relationship Between Nurse Staffing Levels and Patient Safety in Critical Care Units

Abstract

Background: According to the results, the levels of nurses’ staffing are important for safety of patients, especially in the intensive care units. Lack of staffing is associated with higher adverse outcomes, medical mistakes and higher mortality. However, improving and maintaining staffing ratios continues to be a knowledge deficit in many healthcare organizations.

Aim: Evaluating work hour ratios and expertise of nurses along with patient safety outcomes in care sensitive arenas are the objectives of this research.

Methods: A literature search was performed to evaluate studies on nurse staffing, nurse to patient ratios and impact on patient safety in the adult ICU.

Results: The analysis proves that whenever staffing is too low in a center, there are more adverse events. Stewardship and sufficiency of nursing staff, with regard to skill mix, has a positive effect on patients’ outcomes and minimizes adverse effects.

Conclusion: The presence of adequate numbers of staff particularly nurses can greatly enhance or the patient outcome and safety. This evidence supports the concept of staffing and skill mix necessity for decrease of adverse events and for care quality increase in the critical care environment.