A聽study led by Health Sciences is to聽investigate how the provision of nurses in hospitals affects the care and safety of patients.
The research will examine the relationship between nurse staffing levels, failure to observe patients鈥� vital signs and possible consequences 鈥� such as cardiac arrest calls, unanticipated admission to intensive care and death.
Missed opportunities to observe and act upon the deterioration of a patient鈥檚 condition are thought to be important factors in preventable hospital deaths.
Professor Peter Griffiths of Health Sciences聽who is leading the research comments:
鈥淭he potential for inadequate nursing care to do patients great harm has emerged as a factor in several recent reports into failings in NHS hospitals. These have often noted that staffing levels were an important issue associated with poor care and deaths which could have been avoided.
“Our study will help give a clear picture of the relationship between staff numbers and negative patient outcomes, using data routinely collected on hospital wards, during thousands of nursing shifts.鈥�
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