Volume 45 | Number 4 | August 2010

Abstract List

Linda H. Aiken Ph.D., R.N., Douglas M. Sloane Ph.D., Jeannie P. Cimiotti Ph.D., Sean P. Clarke, Linda Flynn, Jean Ann Seago, Joanne Spetz Ph.D., Herbert L. Smith


Objectives

To determine whether nurse staffing in California hospitals, where state‐mandated minimum nurse‐to‐patient ratios are in effect, differs from two states without legislation and whether those differences are associated with nurse and patient outcomes.


Data Sources

Primary survey data from 22,336 hospital staff nurses in California, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in 2006 and state hospital discharge databases.


Study Design

Nurse workloads are compared across the three states and we examine how nurse and patient outcomes, including patient mortality and failure‐to‐rescue, are affected by the differences in nurse workloads across the hospitals in these states.


Principal Findings

California hospital nurses cared for one less patient on average than nurses in the other states and two fewer patients on medical and surgical units. Lower ratios are associated with significantly lower mortality. When nurses' workloads were in line with California‐mandated ratios in all three states, nurses' burnout and job dissatisfaction were lower, and nurses reported consistently better quality of care.


Conclusions

Hospital nurse staffing ratios mandated in California are associated with lower mortality and nurse outcomes predictive of better nurse retention in California and in other states where they occur.