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Working conditions of Nurses associated with elderly patients’ demise

A recent study was published and included in the “Medical Care Journal’s” June issue with findings that hospitals with enhanced staffing and fewer overtime are reliable in the care of elderly patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICU). This study is another scientific evidence supporting the proposals in the legislation called Patient Safety Act (H.2059) for the increase of staffing nurses in hospitals, prohibition of compulsory overtime and restriction in the patients’ number assigned per nurse.

Los Angeles, California, May 31, 2007 - The latest study was led by the researchers of “Columbia University’s School of Nursing”. They have measured the rates of infections among elderly patients that are hospital-related. This ranked the sixth among the highest causes of fatality in the country, according to the March 2007 CDC.

The “review of outcomes data” including patients numbering to about 15,000 or more confined in 51 United State’s hospital ICUs manifested that units with higher levels of nurse staffing had much lower infection incidents. These incidents include the central-line “associated bloodstream infections” or CLSBI. CLSBI is a prevalent cause of ICU mortality incidence.

According to the study, patients who are treated in hospitals that have higher levels of nurse staffing are actually 68% less prone to take infections like CLSBI.

Other ICU patients concerns like those of skin ulcers and pneumonia that is ventilator-associated are also prevalent among patients without regular mobility showed reduced incidence amongst those with high levels of nurse staffing.

Hospitalized patients were less predictable to pass away within a month in these units with higher staffing.

Furthermore, higher overtime levels were also associated with higher infection rates like infections in the urinary tract that are catheter-associated and breaking out of skin ulcers. These kinds of increased rates of infections occur on patients in institutions that have ICU nurses with overtime work amounting to 5.6% of their time.

Patricia W. Stone, Ph.D., M.P.H., and RN said, "Nurses are the hospitals' safety officers, however, nursing units and that have overworked nurses are shown to have poor patient outcomes. Improvements in nurse working conditions are necessary for the safety of our nation's sickest patients." Stone is also the assistant professor of nursing at Columbia University Medical Center. She is also the study's first author.

Their findings suggest that the nurse form one of the largest workforces in the United States’ hospitals. They are also in the distinctive position of affecting the security and safety in the ICUs positively. This is on the condition that there be significant and systematic developments made for their working conditions.

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