Patient survival is directly linked with the workload of nurses

A recent study suggested that patients are more likely to die after the holding of the common surgical procedures, if the nurses taking care of them, there are more strenuous and heavy workloads. The results of a study published 16 Jul 2014 in the journal the Lancet. In the article, researchers from nine European countries reported on data collected on 420 thousands of patients from 300 hospitals in Europe.

They argue that each additional patient added to the average workload of a nurse, the chances of survival of postoperative patients who may die within 30 days after surgery, decrease by 7 percent.

However, they also found that a 10 percent increase in the number of educated nurses who obtained a bachelor's degree, associated with a 7 percent decrease in mortality risk.

The team evaluated the records of more than 26 500 nurses, and medical history of the disease hundreds of thousands of patients aged 50 years who were discharged after surgical procedures such as surgery for knee replacement, appendectomy, gallbladder surgery and cardiovascular procedures.

The author of the study Professor Linda Aiken from the University at the School of Pennsylvania in the US, said:

"The total percentage of patients who died in hospital within 30 days after surgery were low, averaging 1.0 to 1.5 percent. But this percentage, in different hospitals ranged from 1 to 7.

"The data analysis showed that patients in hospitals in which 60 percent of nurses had bachelor's degrees and an average load of six patients to one nurse, there was almost 30 percent lower mortality risk".

 

Source: globalscience.ru