Study- Heavier nurse workload means more patient deaths

CHICAGO -- Amid concerns about a nationwide nurse shortage, a new study found that how many patients a nurse has can be a matter of life or death.

Researchers found that patients had a greater chance of dying following surgery in hospitals where the nurses had to take care of more patients, according to the study in today's's Journal of the American Medical Association.

A heavy workload also meant nurses were more likely to be burned out and unhappy with their jobs.

Researchers suggested that improving nurse staffing levels would not only reduce patient deaths but would also keep nurses on the job at a time when hospitals struggle to fill nursing positions.

In the study, University of Pennsylvania researchers found that each additional patient in a nurse's workload translated to about a 7 percent increase in the likelihood the patient would die within 30 days of admission.

For example, the difference between four and six patients per nurse translated to a 14 percent increase in mortality, while the difference between four and eight patients increased the likelihood of dying by 31 percent.

The American Nurses Association said the study confirms nurses make a difference.

"When a nurse can't be there to see the subtle changes that happen in patients and intervene when those changes are subtle, then patients are going to get into real serious crises and by the time they are in those crises we may not be able to save them," said ANA president Barbara Blakeney.

In the study, researchers used surveys from 10,184 Pennsylvania nurses and looked at 232,342 patients who underwent general, orthopedic or vascular surgery in 168 hospitals in the state. The patients underwent the operations in 1998 and 1999.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health.