OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine recent trends in nurse staffing levels and nursing staff composition. BACKGROUND: Recent trends in hospital nurse staffing have not been well described, and the effects of the 2007 to 2012 recession and 2008 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule change are unknown. METHODS: A longitudinal study of unit-level data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) and hospital-level data from the American Hospital Association (AHA) annual survey was conducted. RESULTS: From 2004 to 2011, total nursing hours per patient day on general care units in NDNQI hospitals increased by 11.5%, and registered nurse (RN) hours per patient day by 22.9%. Trends were similar in AHA hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitals have steadily increased total nurse staffing levels by increasing RN staffing. Use of temporary RNs in hospitals plummeted from mid-2008. There were no apparent changes in staffing levels due to the recession and/or CMS rule change.
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Staggs et al. (2013) studied this question.
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