An increase in the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees is linked to lower rates of postsurgery mortality

Abstract

An Institute of Medicine report has called for registered nurses to achieve higher levels of education, but health care policy makers and others have limited evidence to support a substantial increase in the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees. Using Pennsylvania nurse survey and patient discharge data from 1999 and 2006, we found that a ten-point increase in the percentage of nurses holding a baccalaureate degree in nursing within a hospital was associated with an average reduction of 2.12 deaths for every 1,000 patients--and for a subset of patients with complications, an average reduction of 7.47 deaths per 1,000 patients. We estimate that if all 134 hospitals in our study had increased the percentage of their nurses with baccalaureates by ten points during our study's time period, some 500 deaths among general, orthopedic, and vascular surgery patients might have been prevented. The findings provide support for efforts to increase the production and employment of baccalaureate nurses.

EXHIBIT 2. Change In Percentage Of Nurses With A Baccalaureate Degree In Nursing In Study Hospitals, 1999–2006

SOURCE Authors’ analysis. NOTES The number of hospitals in the study was 134. The mean proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree in nursing was 32.5 percent (standard deviation, 12.6 percent) in 1999 and 32.7 percent (standard deviation, 13.1 percent) in 2006. The difference is not significant. Negative percentage numbers indicate a worsening percentage of nurses with baccalaureate degrees in nursing; positive numbers indicate an improvement.