Content area
Full Text
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
* The purpose of this quantitative, correlational research study was to examine the relationships between nurse staffing, job satisfaction, and nurse retention in an acute care hospital environment.
* Results indicated a moderately strong, inverse relationship between job satisfaction and nurse retention.
* A weak positive relationship between job satisfaction and nurse staffing was identified.
* Nurses reported experiencing job dissatisfaction in the past 6 months specifically related to the number of patients assigned.
* Analysis suggested nurses are staying with their current employer because of the current economic environment.
* Improving nurse staffing will be necessary when the economy improves to prevent the departure of discontented nurses from acute care facilities.
IN 2004, THE INSTITUTE OF Medicine released a report, Keeping Patients Safe: Trans- forming the Nursing Work Environment. This report recog- nized appropriate nurse staffing levels are essential for patient safety. Nurse-patient ratios are a starting point in the discussion of appropriate levels of nurse staf- fing. Researchers agree patient acuity and skill mix must also be taken into consideration when addressing nurse staffing issues (Tevington, 2011). There is a pau- city of research that addresses pa- tient acuity, skill mix, and nurse- patient ratios.
The American Nurses Creden- tialing Center (ANCC) Magnet® hospitals are widely recognized for promoting safe and appropri- ate nurse staffing and generally have good patient outcomes (Trinkoff et al., 2010). According to Needleman and colleagues (2011), Magnet hospitals also have lower patient morbidity and mor- tality rates than non-Magnet hos- pitals. A 3-year study conducted in a Magnet hospital analyzed over three million patient records. Researchers examined the effect of inadequate nurse staffing on mor- tality. There was a 6% risk of death for patients when a shift with a nurse staffing shortage of just 8 hours occurred. The litera- ture suggests nurse-patient ratios of 4:1 or less provide the most optimal outcomes for patients (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski, & Silber, 2002; Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Lake, & Cheney, 2008; Aiken et al., 2010; Needleman et al., 2011; Rosenberg, 2011).
Health care in the United States is a commodity, and nurses are an expensive budgetary con- sideration. Health care facilities have the potential to achieve large financial savings by reducing the number of nurses. Despite the...