The work indicates that an increase in workload of a patient by a nurse was associated with increased likelihood of surgical hospital mortality within 30 days of admission, 7%.
The European Union (EU) expressed concern for the safety of patients RN4CAST to finance the project: the project objective was to measure the value of nursing services. This measurement is a challenge. Based on discharge data from nine of the 12 countries with over 420,000 patients 50 years or older, Linda Aiken and colleagues they showed that increased workload of a patient per nurse was associated with an increased chance of surgical hospital mortality within 30 days of admission, 7%.
The researchers included hospitals in two countries of the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Norway) and seven of the 28 EU countries. The EU is a vast bound by bilateral agreements in which the predominant objective of the European market has recently introduced a social dimension in addressing inequalities (eg, workers’ rights and safe working conditions) area; patients can move freely to get the best care, and nurses can travel for better working conditions.
The study is the first public pan-European report on monitoring how many patients were handled by nurses during their last shift. This method is more accurate than the nurse-population ratio, which often includes midwives and is more informative than other measures (eg number of nurses full-time equivalents) that provide information about the number of nurses are busy, but not how many work in the clinic. The data suggest an important variability within and between countries, possibly because there are no uniform standards, even in countries with a public health service where patients should receive a standard level of nursing care and nurses must work under similar conditions. The study includes information on how decisions regarding the education of nursing college were indicative of the composition of daily nursing staff and their patients, which raises an important question about the variability despite the force in Europe since 1999 , the Bologna process. This statement includes more than 47 of the European Free Trade and other countries (ie, the area of European higher education), and aims to harmonize higher education.
Data refer to the years 2007- 10 so that the researchers did not document the situation immediately before the economic crisis of the EU or of the effects of the austerity measures introduced in several countries. If the study is replicated, the results could be different, in many countries since the austerity measures have led to a reduction in the number of nurses assigned beds. Nurses assigned have large workloads, with negative results in patients, and as a result, the public image of nurses is worsening in many countries. The recession has highlighted the cost of university education for nurses, so that health care organizations may choose to hire assistants or vocational nurses in the belief that costs could be lower and the most effective nurses. Paradoxically, despite the support for research (including the 7th Framework Programme of the EU in November 2013.) The EU decided to approve two avenues for nursing education: vocational school or technical training after 10 years general education, and a path of higher or university education after 12 years of education, which is a change from the previous policy that provides at least 12 years of general education before nursing education.
The study by Aiken and his colleagues provides evidence that nurse ratio – proper patient and also provides support for college education of nurses. It would be interesting to see if these findings are used to inform health care policies or implemented in practice. It is feared that the evidence here is not desired, but act according to these results are deemed too expensive.
* Alvisa Palese, Roger Watson
Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy (AP); and Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull, Hull, UK
alvisa.palese@uniud.it
Online Publishing
February 26, 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60188-4
View Article Online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62631-8
