The work environment of nurses has an impact on patient outcomes

According to a study published online on Dec. 15 in AACN Advanced Critical Care, surgical patients in hospitals with good nurse work conditions have a lower likelihood of ICU admission and mortality.

Anna Krupp, Ph.D., R.N., of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and colleagues calculated the link between the nurse work environment in hospitals and the likelihood of patients being admitted to an intensive care unit and dying following surgery. A cross-sectional study comprising 269,764 adult surgery patients in 453 institutions yielded the results.

The researchers discovered that surgical patients in hospitals with favorable nurse work environments had 16 and 15% lower probabilities of intensive care unit admission and 30-day mortality or critical care unit admission, respectively, in the fully adjusted model accounting for patient and hospital characteristics.

Surgical patients in good vs bad hospitals had 29 and 28 percent lower probabilities of intensive care unit admission and 30-day mortality or intensive care unit admission, respectively.

In a statement, Krupp added, «Hospitals with superior nurse work environments may be better suited to deliver complex patient care in a lower acuity setting without affecting a patient’s probabilities of fatality.»