An encore presentation of the AONE 2010 Concurrent Session

Presenters:
Dr. Mary A. Blegen, RN, PhD, FAAN
Professor in Community Health System and Director of the Center for Patient Safety
School of Nursing - University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Colleen J. Goode, PhD, RN, FAAN, NEA-BC
Professor, College of Nursing
University of Colorado Denver

Title:
Nurse Staffing and the Quality of Care - An Encore Presentation

Description:
There has been a great increase in research on nurse staffing and quality since the 1996 Institute of Medicine publication -"Nurse Staffing in Hospitals and Nursing Homes”. This presentation will review the evidence and provide the current state of the science related to nurse staffing and quality outcomes. The results of these studies do not provide a consistent foundation for administrative decision making. Dr. Goode and Dr. Blegen will present new research that used the University HealthSystem Consortium operational and clinical databases to determine the impact of staffing hours on patient outcomes. The study included 54 academic medical center hospitals and their affiliates. Hospital bed size ranged from 197 to 925 beds. Data from 364 intensive care units and 903 adult units were included. Outcome measures as recommended by the National Quality Forum and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality were used in the study. In addition, the current science related to the effect of educational preparation of the staff on quality outcomes will be presented. Dr. Goode and Dr. Blegen will present a subset of data that looked at educational preparation of the staff and the effect on patient outcomes. This study used state of the art data for both staffing measures and patient outcomes. Attendees will learn about new patient outcomes that are positively affected by nurse staffing that have not been reported before in the literature. Implications for nurse leaders and for research will be presented.

This continuing nursing education activity was submitted for approval to the Illinois Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Absence of conflict of interest: As required by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Accreditation Program, we would like to make you aware of all the potential conflicts of interests. This educational activity's planners and presenters have indicated they have no bias or conflict of interest.

Successful completion: Criteria for judging successful completion of the webinar are attendance at the entire activity and submission of a completed evaluation tool.