Association of nursing hours with cognitive function, balance, and dependency level of stroke patients.
Haneul Lee, Kyounga Lee, Seon-Heui Lee
PMID 36303300WHAT IT FOUND
Stroke patients with more severe cognitive impairment, balance problems, or dependency received more nursing minutes per day.
Total nursing care averaged 321.0 minutes, and the most severe groups received the most.
Key findings
01Stroke patients received a mean of 321.0 nursing minutes per patient day.
02The most severe groups on K-MMSE, K-BBS, and K-MBI had the highest total nursing hours, with p < .001.
03Lower K-MMSE, K-BBS, and K-MBI scores were associated with more nursing hours per patient day.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample came from six hospitals in one country and used convenience sampling, so it may not apply to other wards or countries. Only stroke patients were included, so the findings may not extend to other rehabilitation patients. Nursing hours were observed for only 24 hours, so day-to-day variation was not captured. The study was observational and measured association with nursing hours, not whether nursing staffing caused better or worse patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing nursing staff will improve stroke recovery. The study observed nursing hours on one day and linked patient severity scores to those hours; it did not test whether staffing changes patient outcomes.