Nurse to Patient Ratios

• An increased patient load per nurse was associated with significantly higher likelihood for neck, shoulder, and back musculoskeletal disorders
• Lower nurse-patient ratios have been associated with an increased risk of shock and cardiac arrest.
• Understaffing is associated with an increased risk for nosocomial infection.
• Other negative outcomes include low patient satisfaction, higher costs to the hospital for greater length of stay and payout for HAIs, and higher turnover rate.

Patient Safety and Quality Care Act

https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/sites/default/files/nnu/documents/0423_Ratios_Federal_FactSheet.pdf

Every additional patient assigned to a nurse over the appropriate ratio has a 7% increased chance of patient mortality within 30 days of admission! (Lasater et al., 2021)

7%

What's just ONE more patient?

Amber Tackett - August 2023

Safe Staffing for Nurses