Safe Nurse Staffing in Emergency Departments

Jonathan Drennan

Professor of Healthcare Research

Head of the Centre for Innovation and leadership in Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton

Co-Authors• Dr Alejandra Recio-Saucedo

• Professor Catherine Pope

• Chiara Dall’Ora

• Professor Peter Griffiths

• Dr Jeremy Jones

• Professor Robert Crouch

Introduction• Identifying

approaches to safe nurse staffing in A&E departments is a key challenge for health service providers.

• The work presented here, was undertaken on behalf of NICE.

Challenges to Safe Staffing in Emergency Departments

• Establishing a safe nurse staffing level is a key challenge, in the emergency department (ED) where the acuity and quantity of patient demand is highly variable.

NICE ED Review• We conducted an

evidence review for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to identify research that could inform nursing staff requirements to support safe care in EDs across the UK.

Definitions• EDs were defined as consultant-led 24-h services

with full resuscitation facilities and designated accommodation for Accident and Emergency patients.

• The nursing team was defined as those delivering ‘hands on’ nursing care to adults and children.

– Nurse staffing focused on the size and skill mix of the nursing team relative to the number of patients cared for, expressed as nursing hours per patient day, nurse patient ratios or an equivalent measure.

Challenges to Safe Staffing in Emergency Departments

• Waiting times in major EDs in England have risen:

– the percentage of patients seen in 4 h or less fell from 93.5% in 2013/2014 to 88.9% in 2014/2015.

• The number of patients waiting on a trolley for admission also increased from :

– 33,909 in the winter of 2010/2011 to 105,770 in the winter of 2014/ 2015 These increasing demands have

implications for safe staffing nursing requirements.

The Review Addressed Six Questions• What patient outcomes

are associated with safe nurse staffing?

• What patient factors affect nursing staff requirements?

• What staffing factors affect nursing requirements?

• What environmental factors affect nursing staff requirements?

• What organisational factors influence nursing staff requirements?

• What toolkits are available for identifying nursing staff requirements?

Outcomes Measured

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing

Patient Outcom

es

Waiting

TimesTime spent in ED

Left without

been seen

Satisfaction

Medication errors

Time to medicati

on

Ambulance

diversion

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Waiting Times

– There were mixed results when the association between staffing and waiting times was considered.

– Two studies explored mandated ratios in California: 1:1 for trauma/resuscitation patients, 1:2 for critical patients and 1:4 for all other ED patients.

– One study found a negative association between waiting times and staffing. That is, following the introduction of mandated nurse-patient ratios, waiting times increased significantly, throughput time increased and admission time increased.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Waiting Times

– In contrast Chan, Killeen et al. (2010), reported that waiting times were shorter when patients were cared for in an ED where staffing levels were within Californian state mandated ratios. Waiting times were 16% longer when the ED overall was out-of-ratio compared to in-ratio

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Patients Leaving Without being Seen (LWBS)

– There is evidence from four studies (Weichenthal and Hendey 2011, Brown, Arthur et al. (2012), Hoxhaj, Moseley et al. (2004), Greci, Parshalle et al. (2011)) that lower ED staffing levels are associated with higher rates of patients leaving an ED without being seen.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Emergency Department Care Time (EDCT)

• One prospective study (Chan, Killeen et al. 2010) explored the association between nurse-patient ratios and EDCT. EDCT was found to be longer for patients during times when nurse staffing levels were out-of-ratio compared with times when nurse staffing was in-ratio.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Medication Errors and Medication Administration

– No significant relationship between medication errors or the rate of aspirin administration prior to and following the introduction of mandated NPRs in the ED. 

– Two studies with examined the association between mandated NPRs and time to antibiotics for patients diagnosed with pneumonia in the ED. One study found no significant association between in-ratio and out-of-ratio care on time to antibiotics; however,Weichenthal and Hendey (2011), reported a significant decrease in time to antibiotic administration following the introduction of mandated NPRs.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Patient Satisfaction

– It was found that for each one per cent increment in RN staff skill mix there was an associated increase in overall patient satisfaction with care received in the ED.

– RN proportion was found to have a weak statistical association with patient satisfaction with nursing care, patient satisfaction with overall care in the ED, and the likelihood to recommend the ED to friends and family.

– For each one per cent increment in RN staff skill mix, there was an associated increase in overall patient satisfaction with care received in the ED.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Length of stay in A&E

– Rathlev, Obendorfer et al. (2012) - associations were measured between length of stay and number of ED nurses on duty, ED discharges, ED discharges on the previous shift, number of patients resuscitated, admissions to an inpatient unit and admissions from ED to ICU.

– Staffing numbers were found not to be associated with patients’ length of stay -longer lengths of stay for patients in the ED were associated with an increase in hospital (bed) occupancy, additional patients admitted to the wards from the ED and the number of patients admitted to ICU from the ED.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing• Ambulance Diversion

• Two studies, one in the USA and one in Canada explored the association between ambulance diversion and nurse staffing.

• No association was found between staff workload and the requirement to divert ambulances to other departments.

Patient Outcomes Associated with Nurse Staffing -Summary

Summary• This review identified a number of outcomes that

appear to be associated with nurse staffing levels in ED. While the evidence is not strong, it appears to indicate that levels of nurse staffing in the ED are associated with patients leaving without being seen, ED care time and patient satisfaction. Lower staffing is associated with worse outcomes. We did not find strong evidence that waiting times, medication errors, and the rate of aspirin administration or ambulance diversion are affected by nurse staffing levels.

Where to from here?

Conclusion• In conclusion, there are a number of factors that

were not studied that may influence nurse staff requirements in the ED including unit layout, patient acuity, overcrowding and time of day and day of week on which patients attend the ED.

• The primarily observational studies we found often had a high risk of bias from unmeasured confounding or endogeneity between staffing levels and the outcome. While the evidence is not strong, it appears to indicate that levels of nurse staffing in the ED are associated with patients leaving without being seen, emergency department care time and patient satisfaction. Lower staffing is associated with worse outcomes.

Conclusion• There remain significant evidence gaps, notably a

lack of evidence on the impact of staffing on direct patient outcomes such as mortality, failure to rescue, never events, time to pain assessment or falls.

• Moreover there is no adequate economic evidence that could inform decision making about nurse staffing in EDs.

• Given compelling evidence of association between nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes on inpatient wards, further research is urgently needed to guide decision making about nurse staffing in EDs.