Researchers link nursing injuries to staffing levels
Posted by Patti on June 28th, 2005 / Print This Post
Sometimes articles like this just ANNOY me. It didn’t take any research…or studies…or other forms of wasted money to come to the conclusion: More nursing staff equals less staff injury rates=better care. Did it really take a rocket scientist to figure this out? They should have asked the aides. We would have told them this and saved them a lot of money. I love the second subject line to this story:
Quality of nursing home care may suffer No duh!!
The more hours of nursing care provided per nursing home patient, the fewer the workplace caregiver injuries, which leads to better quality of care, say researchers from the University of Toronto and the University of Maryland.
The study, which appears in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, is authored by University of Maryland School of Nursing professors Alison Trinkoff (Department of Family and Community Health) and Meg Johantgen (Department of Organizational Systems and Adult Health) and Carlos Muntaner, currently a University of Toronto professor and a scientist at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.The researchers examined injury and staffing data for three U.S. states: Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio. For each additional hour of nursing care provided, injury rates for nurses and nurses’ aides fell by nearly 16 per cent. In other words, for every unit increase in staffing, worker injury rates decrease by two injuries per 100 full time workers.
“Our findings were consistent across states, despite differences in data collection, classification of injuries and reporting procedure,” says Trinkoff. “This information is valuable, because as health-care institutions have been asked to perform more efficiently, changes have led to lower staffing and higher patient loads, which lead to worker injury.”
The researchers controlled the data to examine differences between for-profit and not-for-profit homes. Profit status was not significantly related to worker injury, once they accounted for state, facility size and staffing levels. However, for-profit homes generally have higher nursing turnover and lower staffing levels, which correlate with injuries, says Muntaner.
With more than 1.5 million elderly Americans residing in nursing homes and a population that is aging, nursing injuries take on an increasing importance, adds Muntaner. They can be viewed as a warning sign. “If residents are treated by workers who are injured, the quality of care suffers, and there is also the problem of high turnover rates,” Muntaner says.
Muntaner believes the data have implications for Canadian health care, too.
“As we move toward the further privatization of health care, we will see more of this,” he says. “Reductions in staffing ratios and numbers of staff hours lead to lower quality of care. At the end of the day, it’s a policy option, but the consequences are clear. If you try to squeeze the budget to maximize profits, it creates the dangerous situation we see in the United States.”
July 4th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
I am appauled at the fact that facilities are willing to just about everyone more than three times that of a C.N.A. Nursing assistants get no respect in most of the places in which they work yet they are the ones who ruin their health daily by the intensity of their work.I left long term care long ago because of the lack of respect from nurses and other staff members.It is no wonder that women and men are getting out of the profession. I have personally worked in facilities where the nursing assistants were not even told that patients had deadly diseases they could catch!We got to school to learn skills that we are generally told later that we cannot even do because we are ” ONLY NURSING ASSISTANTS ” which is a slap in the face.No pay and no respect,and no help from fellow employees, that is what has ruined the nursing assistant population in this country.Lower wages will only cause people that remain to quit in the end.Overworked,understaffed,disrespected,would you work under those conditions? The answer to that is no,no one would.
August 28th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
I worked in a Rehab. While working alone with an agitated patient, I suffered a T7-T8 disc herniation. That was in 2002. The state of Colorado has basically done nothing but provide pain meds until recently when I saw a doctor out of the work comp system.
In my opinion it is time for all nurses to unionize. That way we have a voice that can be heard over the lobbists that holds us as slaves.
See the State of Colorado and the work by Rep. Morgan Carrol to see how injured workers are treated.
Marilyn
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:09 am
I too, sustain injuries while at work that are documented on appropriate forms. These injuries, bruises, beatings, etc., continue to happen, not recognized by administrators, director of nursing. THIS NEEDS TO STOP. Being assulted while working is as serious as being assulted by a stranger on the street. The facility as a unit for behavior patients. All behavior patients, combative, phyco’s should be grouped and are not because of financial status, or gender. Does any one have any suggestions, to help me protect myself?