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Nursing skill mix and experience reduce patient mortality

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Nurse and other healthcare researchers have not, for the most part, focused their efforts on investigating the effects that nursing care has on commonly recognized quality of care outcomes, such as mortality and readmission for hospitalized patients – the rationale being that the determinants of these outcomes are generally believed to be the patients' own characteristics and the medical process of care. However, there is mounting evidence that nursing care affects these patient outcomes and that these effects can be quantified (Aiken, Smith and Lake 1994; Hunt and Hagen 1998; Tourangeau et al. 2002). The rationale for studying the relationship between nursing care structures and processes, and patient mortality and readmission rates, starts with the knowledge that there is wide variation among hospitals on risk and case-mix adjusted mortality and readmission rates.

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Tourangeau A. Hosp Q. 2002; 5(3):19-20.

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