Acuity, nurse staffing and workforce, missed care and patient outcomes: A cluster-unit-level descriptive comparison

Aim: To compare the patient acuity, nurse staffing and workforce, missed nursing care and patient outcomes among hospital unit-clusters.

Background: Relationships among acuity, nurse staffing and workforce, missed nursing care and patient outcomes are not completely understood.

Method: Descriptive design with data from four unit-clusters: medical, surgical, combined and step-down units. Descriptive statistics were used to compare acuity, nurse staffing coverage, education and expertise, missed nursing care and selected nurse-sensitive outcomes.

Results: Patient acuity in general (medical, surgical and combined) floors is similar to step-down units, with an average of 5.6 required RN hours per patient day. In general wards, available RN hours per patient day reach only 50% of required RN hours to meet patient needs. Workforce measures are comparable among unit-clusters, and average missed nursing care is 21%. Patient outcomes vary among unit-clusters.

Conclusion: Patient acuity is similar among unit-clusters, while nurse staffing coverage is halved in general wards. While RN education, expertise and missed care are comparable among unit-clusters, mortality, skin injuries and risk of family compassion fatigue rates are higher in general wards.

Implications for nursing management: Nurse managers play a pivotal role in hustling policymakers to address structural understaffing in general wards, to maximize patient safety outcomes.