Small Staffing = Rising Death Rates

Because of the nursing shortage as well as widespread burnout, a recent study shows that reducing nursing staffs by ten percent (10%) could result in nearly 11,000

deaths in the hospital each year. We know that poor staffing leads to poor care. However, until now, I had not seen it quantified in any study.

This was a retrospective study from 6.6 million patients treated in 2019. The researchers looked at the number of RNs in the hospitals and reviewed both patient outcomes and satisfaction ratings.

At that time, nurses made up over three-fourths (76.5%) of hospital staffs. If that number were to fall by just ten percent (10%), the chances of a patient dying in a hospital would increase seven percent (7%) and of dying within thirty (30) days of discharge increases by four percent (4%)!

It’s sad to see now that only the sickest patients are hospitalized, and those treating facilities are in a hurry to send them home. Something needs to be done to improve working environments for RNs to reduce understaffed shifts and address the problem of an ever-increasing number of burnouts.

Replacing RNs with non-RN staff is dangerous to patients. Alternative hospital staff models are a poor return on investment for hospitals because even though they save on labor costs, the outcomes are not as good. [See University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Study]

Remember the days of team nursing? Are we walking back to that?

Although this study shows there are enough registered nurses and no evidence of a shortage, the problem is that there are not enough RNs in acute care settings.

I’m not sure what the answer may be, but I know that something must be done to improve the situation because people do not come to hospitals to die!