Staff cutbacks linked to death rates, study finds

1. Staff cutbacks linked to death rates, study finds
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2. Study
• A recent study has found that nursing cutbacks are
directly linked to higher patient death rates in
hospitals across European hospitals in nine countries
• The study, which combined data from 300 European
hospitals, says every additional patient for a nurse
increases the risk of death within a month of surgery
by 7%
• It does not get any better when poorly qualified
nurses are employed, a stark contrast to the times
when nurses had university degrees

3. Patients vs Nurses
• The study, published in the Lancet journal, showed
that on average, every one nurse in English hospitals
looked after nine patients on average
• In other countries, this ratio was much smaller.
Norway had a patient-to-nurse ratio of 5.2 while
Ireland had 6.9, Netherlands 7 and Sweden 7.6
• On the high end of the spectrum, Spain had the most
overworked staff, with an average of 12.7 patients
per nurse
• Spain's nurses were way more qualified as each one
of them had a bachelor degree compared to only
28% in England

4. Patients vs Nurses
• US expert Professor Linda Aiken, from the University
of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, who led the
research, said
• “Our findings emphasize the risk to patients that
could emerge in response to nurse staffing cuts
under recent austerity measures, and suggest that an
increased emphasis on bachelor’s education for
nurses could reduce hospital deaths”

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death-rates-study-finds/