The association between hospital nursing resource profiles and nurse and patient outcomes

Abstract

Aims: To identify and describe profiles of nursing resources and compare nurse and patient outcomes among the identified nursing resource profiles.Background: Research linking nurse education, staffing, and the work environment treats these nursing resources as separate variables. Individual hospitals exhibit distinct profiles of these resources.Methods: This cross-sectional secondary analysis used 2006 data from 692 hospitals in four states. Latent class mixture modelling was used to identify resource profiles.Regression models estimated the associations among the profiles and outcomes.Results: Three profiles were identified (better, mixed and poor) according to their nursing resource levels. Hospitals with poor profiles were disproportionately midsized, for-profit, and had lower technology capability. Nurse job outcomes, patient mortality and care experiences were significantly improved in hospitals with better resource profiles.Conclusions: Hospitals exhibit distinct profiles of nursing resources that reflect investments into nursing. Nurse and patient outcomes and patients' experiences are improved in hospitals with better nursing resource profiles. This finding is consistent with the literature that has examined these resources independently.Implications for Nursing Management: Nurse managers can identify their nursing resource profile and the associated outcomes. Our results show the advantages of improving one's hospital nursing resource profile, motivating managers to make an informed decision regarding investments in nursing resources.

Association of burnout and intention-to-leave the profession with work environment: A nationwide cross-sectional study among Belgian intensive care nurses after two years of pandemic

“…Second, hospitals with a better working environment, even in times of pandemic, have better results for the risk of burnout and intention-to-leave the job and profession than hospitals with a worse environment. This association has already been demonstrated in other studies and it seems that hospitals with a better work environment are better able to protect the wellbeing of nurses even in times of high stress (Alharbi et al, 2020;Kester et al, 2021;Lake et al, 2022;Sermeus et al, 2011;Van den Heede et al, 2019;Wei et al, 2018).…”

“…Given these results by subscale, hospital managers and health-related policies can prioritise their interventions to improve the nursing work environment. Initiatives such as the "Magnet hospital accreditation" concept could be interesting to implement to foster a better working environment that includes factors such as structural empowerment of clinical staff, transformational leadership, exemplary and evidence-based professional practice, new knowledge, innovations and improvements (Lake et al, 2022;Sermeus et al, 2022). This accreditation requires, among other things, flat and decentralised organisational structures, empowerment of the frontline staff in decision-making and transformational leadership (Sermeus et al, 2022).…”

Attitudes towards Communication in Nursing Students and Nurses: Are Social Skills and Emotional Intelligence Important?

“…The social skills of nursing professionals include their ability to communicate effectively and provide high-quality care [ 24 ]. This factor is associated with better physical and emotional health outcomes for patients, such as increased adherence to treatment and improved survival; it is also associated with more social support, improved quality of life and fewer mental health problems in nurses [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Therefore, they are essential for the personal and professional development of nurses.…”

“…Furthermore, research suggests that nursing care and patient outcomes and safety are directly related to nurses’ personal competencies [ 27 ]. As can be seen, all these skills are of great importance in nursing, which is why they are fundamental in the preparation of nursing students as future professionals.…”

Association between nursing cost and patient outcomes in intensive care units: A retrospective cohort study of Belgian hospitals

“…Optimal nurse staffing in acute care hospitals also reduces costs due to fewer readmissions, lower rates of admission to intensive care, and shorter lengths of stay (Aiken et al, 2021;McHugh et al, 2021;Murphy et al, 2021). Hospitals with better nursing resources (staffing, skill mix, education, work environment) have better patient outcomes and experiences, with no difference in cost (Lasater et al, 2021a;Lake et al, 2022). However, to our knowledge, no study has been conducted on the association between nursing cost and patient outcomes in ICUs only.…”