Comparative analysis of nurse staffing levels and their association with mortality, patient safety, missed nursing care, length of stay, and readmissions: a meta-analysis

Key Points

• This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effects of nurse staffing levels on various patient outcomes, including mortality and patient safety.
• Conducted a meta-analysis using various studies to assess the impact of nurse staffing ratios on outcomes.
• Collected data including odds ratios (OR) or risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI).
• Focused on associations with mortality, patient safety, missed nursing care, length of stay, and readmissions.
• Adequate nurse staffing levels are associated with significantly lower mortality rates (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.68-0.85, p<0.001).
• Inadequate staffing correlates with higher rates of health care-associated infections and surgical complications (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.20-1.48, p<0.001).
• Longer lengths of stay were reported in settings with inadequate nurse staffing (mean difference 2.5 days, 95% CI 1.8-3.2, p<0.001).