Factors That Influence Nurse Staffing Levels in Acute Care Hospital Settings.
Ana María Porcel-Gálvez, Elena Fernández-García, Anne Marie Rafferty and 3 others
PMID 33876892WHAT IT FOUND
Nurse staffing levels in acute care hospitals are driven by hospital type, shift, and season, not by how sick or dependent the patients are.
Evening and night shifts had significantly higher patient loads than morning shifts.
Key findings
01Statistically significant factors influencing nurse staffing levels were the type of unit, the shift, and the season.
02Patient acuity and dependency measures (INICIARE scale, Barthel Index, and Pfeiffer’s test) did not show statistically significant differences in relation to nurse staffing levels.
03Nurse staffing levels were highest during evening and night shifts compared to morning shifts.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design identifies associations but cannot prove cause and effect. The study was limited to a specific region in Spain (Andalucian Health Care System), which may limit generalizability to other healthcare systems. Nurse staffing levels were assessed via self-report on the last shift, which may introduce recall bias.
Declared interests
No specific conflicts of interest or funding sources were reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that patient acuity has no impact on workload; this study shows that current staffing *allocations* do not adjust for acuity, not that acuity is irrelevant to care needs.