Nursing staffing, nursing workload, the work environment and patient outcomes
Applied Nursing ResearchPublished 11 February 2010
Christine Duffield, Donna Diers, Linda O’Brien‐Pallas, Chris Aisbett, Michael Roche, Madeleine King
Citations470
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score0.91
SNIP1.07
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TL;DR
Nurse staffing (fewer RNs), increased workload, and unstable nursing unit environments were linked to negative patient outcomes including falls and medication errors on medical/surgical units in a mixed method study combining longitudinal data (5 years) and primary data collection.
Abstract
Nurse staffing (fewer RNs), increased workload, and unstable nursing unit environments were linked to negative patient outcomes including falls and medication errors on medical/surgical units in a mixed method study combining longitudinal data (5 years) and primary data collection.
Keywords
Health ProfessionsNursing
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