Below-target" nursing shifts and increased workloads signal greater risk of mortality for patients

Washington, DC -- Dian Palmer, RN, President of the Nurse Alliance of SEIU Healthcare released this statement today with regard to the findings reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on the relationship between nurse staffing levels and patient mortality rates. The study was led by a team of researchers from the UCLA School of Public Health, Mayo Clinic and Vanderbilt University and found that patients' mortality risk rises as the number of below-target staffing nursing shifts they are exposed to increases. The study also found that when nurses' workloads increase during shifts because of high patient turnover, mortality risk also increases.

"The finding shared by Dr. Jack Needleman and Peter Bauerhaus and their team of researchers confirms what frontline nurses experience every day: staffing levels are directly linked to our patient's health and our ability as nurses to deliver the highest quality of care possible. This study also proves conclusively that safe staffing targets set inside hospitals must keep pace with spikes in patient demand and that targeted staffing levels must be consistently met throughout each shift in order for patients to receive optimal care.

"The 85,000 nurses of SEIU strongly support the recommendations by the study's authors to overcome the risks of increased patient mortality, including:

• Creating a good system for identifying target nurse staffing based on patient need for nursing and managing that staffing to meet your targets.
• Taking patient turnover into account in staffing and trying to smooth admissions, discharges and transfers to units so as to minimize surges in the workload of nurses.
• Nursing is not just a cost center that can be cut to save costs. Decisions about nurse staffing levels must be patient-centered, not cost driven.

"SEIU nurses are committed to delivering the highest quality care to patients and we can achieve that goal by ensuring that every state has robust and effective safe staffing legislation. We will continue to reach out to nurses and concerned citizens to ask for their support of safe staffing legislation in states such as Pennsylvania, Florida and New York.

"Let there be no more debate about the link between nurse staffing levels and patients' health - there are far too many lives at stake."

The Nurse Alliance of SEIU Healthcare is composed of more than 85,000 Registered Nurses in 21 states and committed to the vision of a strong and unified voice for nurses and quality, affordable healthcare for all. As part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's largest healthcare union, the Nurse Alliance unites RNs with more than 900,000 other health care workers to truly change the face of health care in America.

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