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Context: Infants born at very low birth weight (VLBW) require high levels of nursing intensity. The role of nursing in outcomes for these infants in the United States is not known.Objective: To examine the relationships between hospital recognition for nursing excellence (RNE) and VLBW infant outcomes.Design, Setting, and Patients: Cohort study of 72,235 inborn VLBW infants weighing 501 to 1500 g born in 558 Vermont Oxford Network hospital neonatal intensive care units between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2008. Hospital RNE was determined from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The RNE designation is awarded when nursing care achieves exemplary practice or leadership in 5 areas.Main Outcome Measures: Seven-day, 28-day, and hospital stay mortality; nosocomial infection, defined as an infection in blood or cerebrospinal fluid culture occurring more than 3 days after birth; and severe (grade 3 or 4) intraventricular hemorrhage.Results: Overall, the outcome rates were as follows: for 7-day mortality, 7.3% (5258/71,955); 28-day mortality, 10.4% (7450/71,953); hospital stay mortality, 12.9% (9278/71,936); severe intraventricular hemorrhage, 7.6% (4842/63,525); and infection, 17.9% (11,915/66,496). The 7-day mortality was 7.0% in RNE hospitals and 7.4% in non-RNE hospitals (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.87; 95% CI, 0.76-0.99; P = .04). The 28-day mortality was 10.0% in RNE hospitals and 10.5% in non-RNE hospitals (adjusted OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.80-1.01; P = .08). Hospital stay mortality was 12.4% in RNE hospitals and 13.1% in non-RNE hospitals (adjusted OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.81-1.01; P = .06). Severe intraventricular hemorrhage was 7.2% in RNE hospitals and 7.8% in non-RNE hospitals (adjusted OR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.77-1.00; P = .045). Infection was 16.7% in RNE hospitals and 18.3% in non-RNE hospitals (adjusted OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.75-0.99; P = .04). Compared with RNE hospitals, the adjusted absolute decrease in risk of outcomes in RNE hospitals ranged from 0.9% to 2.1%. All 5 outcomes were jointly significant (P < .001). The mean effect across all 5 outcomes was OR, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.83-0.94; P < .001). In a subgroup of 68,253 infants with gestational age of 24 weeks or older, the ORs for RNE for all 3 mortality outcomes and infection were statistically significant.Conclusion: Among VLBW infants born in RNE hospitals compared with non-RNE hospitals, there was a significantly lower risk-adjusted rate of 7-day mortality, nosocomial infection, and severe intraventricular hemorrhage but not of 28-day mortality or hospital stay mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and several single-item measures were administered to registered nurses (RNs) working within 23 U.S.-based Army Medical Department (AMEDD) hospitals. Data were analyzed with logistic regression for nested data. Unfavorable nursing practice environments had a substantial association with job dissatisfaction (OR 13.75, p < .01), emotional exhaustion (OR 12.70, p < .01), intent to leave (OR 3.03, p < .01), and fair to poor quality of care (OR 10.66, p < .01). This study provides the first system-wide analyses of nursing practice environments in AMEDD hospitals in the U.S. Similar to findings in civilian samples, poor quality work environments are associated with less favorable RN work outcomes and quality of care ratings. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 33:99-110, 2010 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. The aim of the study was to describe Registered Nurses' reports of unmet nursing care needs and examine the variation of nursing care quality across hospitals. Background. Large proportions of Registered Nurses have reported leaving necessary care activities undone because they lacked the time to complete the activities. Nursing care left undone can be expected to adversely affect the quality of care. However, little is known about the degree of variation in the quality of nursing care across hospitals. Methods. In 2008, a secondary analysis of a 1999 survey of Registered Nurses (n = 10,184) was conducted using descriptive and comparative statistics. Data were derived from inpatient staff nurses working in acute care hospital settings (n = 168). A hospital-level measure (i.e. unmet nursing care needs) of the quality of nursing care was developed from care needs left undone among all nurses. Results. Across hospitals there was a wide range in the proportion of Registered Nurses who reported leaving each nursing care need undone. They reported leaving two of seven necessary nursing care activities undone during their last shift. After controlling for nurses' demographic information, we found statistically significant variations in the quality of nursing care across hospitals. Conclusion. Differences in nursing care quality across hospitals appear to be closely associated with variations in the quality of care environments. Understanding the determinants of unmet nursing care needs can support policy decisions on systems and human resources management to enhance nurses' awareness of their care practices and the care environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Better patient outcomes are often achieved through effective surveillance, a primary function of nurses. The purpose of this article is to define, operationalize, measure, and evaluate the nurse surveillance capacity of hospitals. Nurse surveillance capacity is defined as the organizational features that enhance or weaken nurse surveillance. It includes a set of registered nurse (staffing, education, expertise, experience) and nurse practice environment characteristics. Empirical referents were extracted from existing survey data from 9,232 nurses in 174 hospitals. Using a ranking methodology, a Hospital Nurse Surveillance Capacity Profile was created for each hospital. Greater nurse surveillance capacity was significantly associated with better quality of care and fewer adverse events. The profile may assist administrators to improve nurse surveillance and patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Revised Nursing Work Index (NWI-R) is a widely used instrument for evaluating registered nurses' (RNs) practice environments. The existence of multiple subscale sets from the NWI-R raises questions about its generalizability. We tested the validity of the one-, three-, and five-subscale sets from the NWI-R and derived a short-form subscale set using a sample of RNs from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The prior sets do not have an excellent fit to these data. Results of exploratory factor analyses suggested a four-factor model with Opportunity for Advancement, Collegial Nurse-Physician Relations, Staffing Adequacy, and Nurse Manager Leadership as the most salient and parsimonious solution. Additional research is needed to corroborate these findings in other nurse samples and settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The pandemic profoundly stressed nursing practice and could have thereby affected trends in nurse-sensitive quality indicators (NSIs), measures that detect changes in patient health status directly affected by nursing care., Objectives: To determine if NSIs have worsened in response to the pandemic and then returned to pre-pandemic levels using data from 2019 through 2022., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study of annual trends, examining unit data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) from 2019 through 2022 for five indicators: rates of falls, central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI), and ventilator-associated events (VAE). The NDNQI is the largest repository of nursing quality indicators, which are derived from patient-level events, reported at the nursing unit level, and submitted quarterly by over 2,000 member hospitals. Adult medical-surgical or critical care inpatient nursing units with complete data for the 4 years were included, with samples ranging from 456 to 5,818 nursing units in 2,346 hospitals. Analysis of variance was conducted by comparing the 2019 rates to each subsequent year., Results: In decreasing order of prevalence, the mean pre-pandemic rates were 6.58 VAE per 1,000 ventilator days (critical care only), 2.41 HAPI per 1,000 device days, 2.20 falls per 1,000 patient days, 0.96 CAUTI per 1,000 catheter days, and 0.68 CLABSI per 1,000 central line days, for medical-surgical and critical care units combined. The rates for all five nurse-sensitive indicators increased significantly beginning in 2020 and have begun to decline but have not returned to baseline by 2022. The maximum rate was observed in 2020 for falls and 2021 for the remaining indicators. These increases to the maximum ranged from a 12% percent increase in CAUTI to 49% for CLABSI., Discussion: NSIs increased during the pandemic and are now returning to baseline. The pandemic underscored the importance of nursing practice. The pandemic's enduring negative effects on the nursing workforce must be addressed to preserve patient safety., Competing Interests: Drs. Pascal and Warshawsky are employed by Press Ganey but did not receive any special incentives for this project. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to report., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) has been utilized for two decades globally to measure nurse work environments. Its 31 items in five domains present a substantial respondent burden, threatening survey response rates. The purpose of this study was to derive and validate a short form: the PES-5. We conducted a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of survey data from nurses in 760 hospitals in six U.S. states in 2016 or 2019. One representative item per subscale was selected by highest item-to-subscale R 2 from the original PES-NWI publication. Five psychometric properties of the PES-5 were evaluated. The reproduced structure of the full form was confirmed in the 2016 data by the highest R 2 for the selected items. The unidimensional structure of the PES-5 was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. The correlation between the composite values of the 28-item and 5-item versions was 0.94. The Cronbach's alpha reliability of the PES-5 was >0.80. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC 1, k), which evaluates the stability of aggregated values when data are clustered, i.e., nurses are nested within hospitals, was >0.80 in both datasets, demonstrating satisfactory aggregate properties. Construct validity was supported by the selected items being ranked highly in their respective subscales by an expert panel. Criterion validity was supported by an analysis of variance of the PES-5 mean value across responses to a single-item work environment measure. Similar patterns of relationships with other key variables were identified by statistically significant odds ratios in regression models predicting patient mortality from the PES-5. The classification accuracy of the PES-5 was high, with 88% of hospitals classified identically by both versions. The PES-5 shows promise for measurement of nurses' work environments while maximizing response rate by reducing participant burden., (© 2024 The Authors. Research in Nursing & Health published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Poorer leadership communication during COVID-19 may have contributed to the moral distress of nurses in hospitals where Black patients predominantly access their care (BSH)., Purpose: To compare nurse moral distress and leadership communication during the COVID-19 pandemic in hospitals that serve disproportionately many or few patients of Black race., Methods: In a national hospital sample (n = 90), nurse survey data were collected (March 2021). Nurse moral distress was analyzed in linear regression models. The key covariates were BSH category (Medicare Black patient percentage) and leadership communication., Discussion: Nurses in high-BSH had significantly greater moral distress and more difficulty accessing personal protective equipment than nurses in low-BSH. The percentage of nurses in high-BSHs with high moral distress was double that of nurses in low-BSHs. Poorer leadership communication in BSHs accounted for the nurses' greater moral distress., Conclusion: Policies should improve leadership communication, mitigate distress, and support nurses in under-resourced settings., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To determine which hospital nursing resources (staffing, skill mix, nurse education, and nurse work environment) are most predictive of hospital Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System (HCAHPS) performance., Background: HCAHPS surveying is designed to quantify patient experience, a measure of patient-centered care. Hospitals are financially incentivized through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to achieve high HCAHPS ratings, but little is known about what modifiable hospital factors are associated with higher HCAHPS ratings., Patients and Methods: Secondary analysis of multiple linked data sources in 2016 providing information on hospital HCAHPS ratings, hospital nursing resources, and other hospital attributes (eg, size, teaching, and technology status). Five hundred forty non-federal adult acute care hospitals in California, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and 11,786 registered nurses working in those hospitals. Predictor variables included staffing (ie, patient-to-nurse ratio), skill mix (ie, the proportion of registered nurses to all nursing staff), nurse education (ie, percentage of nurses with a bachelor's degree or higher), and nurse work environment (ie, the quality of the environment in which nurses work). HCAHPS ratings were the outcome variable., Results: More favorable staffing, higher proportions of bachelor-educated nurses, and better work environments were associated with higher HCAHPS ratings. The work environment had the largest association with higher HCAHPS ratings, followed by nurse education, and then staffing. Superior staffing and work environments were associated with higher odds of a hospital being a "higher HCAHPS performer" compared with peer hospitals., Conclusion: Improving nursing resources is a strategic organizational intervention likely to improve HCAHPS ratings., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

With the global nurse shortage, identifying nurse work environments that allow nurses to continue working is a common concern worldwide. This study examined whether a better nurse work environment (1) is associated with reducing nurses' psychological distress; (2) reduces nurse resignations; (3) weakens the influence of psychological distress on their resignation through interaction effect; and (4) whether psychological distress increases nurse turnover. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed using data obtained in 2014 from 2,123 staff nurses from a prospective longitudinal survey project of Japanese hospitals. The nurse work environment was measured by the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) consisting of five subscales and a composite, and psychological distress by K6. All the PES-NWI subscales and composite (ORs 0.679-0.834) were related to K6, significantly. Regarding nurse turnover, K6 had a consistent effect (ORs 1.834-1.937), and only subscale 2 of the PES-NWI had a direct effect (OR 0.754), but there was no effect due to the interaction term. That is, (1) and (4) were validated, (2) was partly validated, but (3) was not. As better work environment reduces K6 and a lower K6 decreases nurses' resignation, high-level hospital managers need to continue improving the nurse work environment.

Purpose: To examine the effect of nurse staffing in varying work environments on missed breastfeeding teaching and support in inpatient maternity units in the United States., Background: Breast milk is the optimal food for newborns. Teaching and supporting women in breastfeeding are primarily a nurse's responsibility. Better maternity nurse staffing (fewer patients per nurse) is associated with less missed breastfeeding teaching and support and increased rates of breastfeeding. We examined the extent to which the nursing work environment, staffing, and nurse education were associated with missed breastfeeding care and how the work environment and staffing interacted to impact missed breastfeeding care., Methods: In this cross-sectional study using the 2015 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicator survey, maternity nurses in hospitals in 48 states and the District of Columbia responded about their workplace and breastfeeding care. Clustered logistic regression models with interactions were used to estimate the effects of the nursing work environment and staffing on missed breastfeeding care., Results: There were 19 486 registered nurses in 444 hospitals. Nearly 3 in 10 (28.2%) nurses reported missing breastfeeding care. In adjusted models, an additional patient per nurse was associated with a 39% increased odds of missed breastfeeding care. Furthermore, 1 standard deviation decrease in the work environment was associated with a 65% increased odds of missed breastfeeding care. In an interaction model, staffing only had a significant impact on missed breastfeeding care in poor work environments., Conclusions: We found that the work environment is more fundamental than staffing for ensuring that not only breastfeeding care is not missed but also breastfeeding care is sensitive to nurse staffing. Improvements to the work environment support the provision of breastfeeding care., Implications for Research and Practice: Both nurse staffing and the work environment are important for improving breastfeeding rates, but the work environment is foundational., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: We compared low-risk cesarean birth rates for Black and White women across hospitals serving increasing proportions of Black women and identified hospitals where Black women had low-risk cesarean rates less than or equal to White women., Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis of secondary data from four states, we categorized hospitals by their proportion of Black women giving birth from "low" to "high". We analyzed the odds of low-risk cesarean for Black and White women across hospital categories., Results: Our sample comprised 493 hospitals and the 65,524 Black and 251,426 White women at low risk for cesarean who birthed in them. The mean low-risk cesarean rate was significantly higher for Black, compared with White, women in the low (20.1% vs. 15.9%) and medium (18.1% vs. 16.9%) hospital categories. In regression models, no hospital structural characteristics were significantly associated with the odds of a Black woman having a low-risk cesarean. For White women, birthing in a hospital serving the highest proportion of Black women was associated with a 21% (95% CI: 1.01-1.44) increase in the odds of having a low-risk cesarean., Discussion: Black women had higher odds of a low-risk cesarean than White women and were more likely to access care in hospitals with higher low-risk cesarean rates. The existence of hospitals where low-risk cesarean rates for Black women were less than or equal to those of White women was notable, given a predominant focus on hospitals where Black women have poorer outcomes. Efforts to decrease the low-risk cesarean rate should focus on (1) improving intrapartum care for Black women and (2) identifying differentiating organizational factors in hospitals where cesarean birth rates are optimally low and equivalent among racial groups as a basis for system-level policy efforts to improve equity and reduce cesarean birth rates., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Introduction: International evidence shows that nurses' work environments affect patient outcomes, including their care experiences. In Chile, several factors negatively affect the work environment, but they have not been addressed in prior research. The aim of this study was to measure the quality of the nurse work environment in Chilean hospitals and its association with patient experience., Design: A cross-sectional study of 40 adult general high-complexity hospitals across Chile., Methods: Participants included bedside nurses (n = 1632) and patients (n = 2017) in medical or surgical wards, who responded to a survey. The work environment was measured through the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index. Hospitals were categorized as having a good or poor work environment. A set of patient experience outcomes were measured through the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to test associations between the environment and patient experiences., Results: For all outcomes, the percentage of patients satisfied was higher in hospitals with good as compared to poor work environments. In good environment hospitals patients had significantly higher odds of being satisfied with communication with nurses (OR 1.46, 95% CI: 1.10-1.94, p = 0.010), with pain control (OR 1.52, 95% CI: 1.14-2.02, p = 0.004), and with nurses' timely responses in helping them to go to the bathroom (OR 2.17, 95% CI: 1.49-3.16, p < 0.0001)., Conclusions: Hospitals with good environments outperform hospitals with poor environments in most patient care experience indicators. Efforts to improve nurses' work environment hold promise for improving patient experiences in Chilean hospitals., Clinical Relevance: Hospital administrators and nurse managers should value, especially in the context of financial constraints and understaffing, the implementation of strategies to improve the quality of nurses´ work environments so that they can provide patients with a better care experience., (© 2023 Sigma Theta Tau International.)

Since 2002, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index has been used worldwide to evaluate nurse work environments. High quality translations in different languages can help advance science and inform practice globally. The study purposes were to conduct a systematic review of published translations of the instrument and to assess their linguistic equivalence and psychometric performance. We conducted a comprehensive search, a quality assessment and synthesis of linguistic equivalence, reliability, and validity data. Studies published through July 2021 were identified in the CINAHL, LILACS, EMCare, and Scopus databases. Thirty-eight publications were selected, comprising 46 translations into 24 languages and 15 language variants, and 35 countries. Translations are in predominantly European, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern languages. Two-thirds of the translations reflected medium to high fulfillment of translation quality criteria. The GRADE ratings, reflecting satisfactory fulfillment of cross-cultural equivalence and psychometric properties, were predominantly high (n = 23), then low (n = 15), then moderate (n = 8). The identified translations will support the advancement of global science and the improvement of nurses' work environments., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

The health outcomes of very low birthweight (VLBW) infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may be jeopardized when required nursing care is missed. This correlational study is the first to look at the association between missed nursing care and mortality, morbidity, and length of stay (LOS) for VLBW infants in a U.S. NICU sample. We used 2016 hospital administrative discharge abstracts for VLBW newborns ( n = 7,595) and NICU registered nurse survey responses ( n = 6,963) from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators. The 190 sample hospitals were from 19 states in all regions. Missed clinical nursing care was significantly associated with higher odds of bloodstream infection and longer LOS, but not mortality or severe intraventricular hemorrhage. With further research, these results may motivate the development of interventions to reduce missed clinical nursing care in the NICU.

Objectives: In adults, receiving care in a hospital with more baccalaureate-prepared nurses improves outcomes. This relationship is magnified in adults with serious mental illness or cognitive impairment. Whether the same is true in children with and without a mental health condition is unknown. The study purposes were to determine 1) whether the proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses affected the odds of readmission in children; and 2) whether this relationship differed for children with a mental health condition., Patients and Methods: We linked cross-sectional data from the 2016 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases, the RN4CAST-US nurse survey in Florida, and the American Hospital Association. Inclusion criteria were ages 3 to 21 years. Mental health conditions were defined as psychiatric or developmental/behavioral diagnoses. These were identified using the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Disorders Classification System. We used multivariable, hierarchical logistic regression models to assess the relationship between nurse training and readmissions., Results: In 35 081 patients admitted to 122 hospitals with 4440 nurses, 21.0% of patients had a mental health condition and 4.2% had a 7-day readmission. For individuals without a mental health condition, each 10% increase in the proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses was associated with 8.0% lower odds of readmission (odds ratio = 0.92, 95% confidence interval = 0.87-0.97). For those with a mental health condition, each 10% increase in the proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses was associated with 16.0% lower odds of readmission (odds ratio = 0.84, 95% confidence interval = 0.78-0.91)., Conclusions: A higher proportion of baccalaureate-educated nurses is associated with lower odds of readmission for pediatric patients. This association has a larger magnitude in patients with a mental health condition., (Copyright © 2023 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Aims and Objectives: To characterise the problem of missed nursing care in Chilean hospitals and to test associations with hospital organisational variables., Background: Missed nursing care is a common problem in different countries, but it has not been studied in Chile., Design: Multihospital cross-sectional study (Supplementary file 1: STROBE guideline)., Methods: Study population of 45 adult high-complexity hospitals and 1853 registered nurses (RN) working on medical-surgical units. Primary data were collected through a nurse survey. Nurses reported, out of a list of nursing care activities, the ones left undone during their last shift. The main independent variables were the work environment, measured through the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, patient-to-nurse ratios and RN skillmix. Adjusted logistic regression analyses were used to test associations, accounting for clustering of nurses working in the same hospital., Results: The hospital response rate was 88.9% and, for nurses, 88.1%. The mean patient-to-nurse ratio was 14.5 (range 6-23). The average skillmix was 31% RN. Eighty-six percent of nurses missed at least one activity. The activities most frequently missed included patient education, comforting patients and surveillance. The adjusted model showed a significant association between the work environment, staffing ratios and missed care. The RN skillmix was not associated., Conclusions: Missed care is highly prevalent problem in Chilean hospitals. Clinical activities were the least missed. It is necessary to improve work environments and reduce the number of patients per nurse to improve the safety and quality of care., Relevance for Clinical Practice: The study results are relevant since they provide new data to Chile. Better work environments and adequate human resources are modifiable factors that can be addressed from a managerial perspective, with low-cost strategies to effectively reduce missed care and improve safety and quality., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: To examine variation in nursing resources across three different types of maternity units in five regions of the United States., Design: Cross-sectional descriptive., Setting: Maternity units in hospitals in 48 states and the District of Columbia that participated in the 2016 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicator survey., Participants: Staff nurses (N = 19,486) who worked in 707 maternity units., Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of survey data examining nursing resources (work environment, staffing, education, specialty certification) by type of maternity unit, including labor and delivery, labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum, and postpartum. We used descriptive statistics and analysis of variance., Results: Participants worked in 707 units (269 labor and delivery units, 164 labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum units, and 274 postpartum units) in 444 hospitals. The work environment was not significantly different across unit types (mean = 2.89-2.94, p = .27). Staffing, education, and specialty certification varied significantly across the unit types (p ≤ .001). In terms of staffing, postpartum units had, on average, almost twice the number of patients per nurse as labor and delivery units (7.51 patients/nurse vs. 4.01 patients/nurse, p ≤ .001) and 1.5 times more patients than labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum units (5.04 patients/nurse vs. 4.01 patients/nurse, p ≤ .001)., Conclusion: Nursing resources varied significantly across types of maternity units and regions of the United States. This variation suggests that improving nursing resources may be a system-level target for improving maternity care in the United States., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors report no conflicts of interest or relevant financial relationships., (Copyright © 2022 AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aims: To identify and describe profiles of nursing resources and compare nurse and patient outcomes among the identified nursing resource profiles., Background: Research linking nurse education, staffing, and the work environment treats these nursing resources as separate variables. Individual hospitals exhibit distinct profiles of these resources., Methods: This cross-sectional secondary analysis used 2006 data from 692 hospitals in four states. Latent class mixture modelling was used to identify resource profiles. Regression models estimated the associations among the profiles and outcomes., Results: Three profiles were identified (better, mixed and poor) according to their nursing resource levels. Hospitals with poor profiles were disproportionately mid-sized, for-profit, and had lower technology capability. Nurse job outcomes, patient mortality and care experiences were significantly improved in hospitals with better resource profiles., Conclusions: Hospitals exhibit distinct profiles of nursing resources that reflect investments into nursing. Nurse and patient outcomes and patients' experiences are improved in hospitals with better nursing resource profiles. This finding is consistent with the literature that has examined these resources independently., Implications for Nursing Management: Nurse managers can identify their nursing resource profile and the associated outcomes. Our results show the advantages of improving one's hospital nursing resource profile, motivating managers to make an informed decision regarding investments in nursing resources., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aims: To explore factors associated with nurses' moral distress during the first COVID-19 surge and their longer-term mental health., Design: Cross-sectional, correlational survey study., Methods: Registered nurses were surveyed in September 2020 about their experiences during the first peak month of COVID-19 using the new, validated, COVID-19 Moral Distress Scale for Nurses. Nurses' mental health was measured by recently experienced symptoms. Analyses included descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Outcome variables were moral distress and mental health. Explanatory variables were frequency of COVID-19 patients, leadership communication and personal protective equipment/cleaning supplies access. The sample comprised 307 nurses (43% response rate) from two academic medical centres., Results: Many respondents had difficulty accessing personal protective equipment. Most nurses reported that hospital leadership communication was transparent, effective and timely. The most distressing situations were the transmission risk to nurses' family members, caring for patients without family members present, and caring for patients dying without family or clergy present. These occurred occasionally with moderate distress. Nurses reported 2.5 days each in the past week of feeling anxiety, withdrawn and having difficulty sleeping. Moral distress decreased with effective communication and access to personal protective equipment. Moral distress was associated with longer-term mental health., Conclusion: Pandemic patient care situations are the greatest sources of nurses' moral distress. Effective leadership communication, fewer COVID-19 patients, and access to protective equipment decrease moral distress, which influences longer-term mental health., Impact: Little was known about the impact of COVID-19 on nurses' moral distress. We found that nurses' moral distress was associated with the volume of care for infected patients, access to personal protective equipment, and communication from leaders. We found that moral distress was associated with longer-term mental health. Leaders should communicate transparently to decrease nurses' moral distress and the negative effects of global crises on nurses' longer-term mental health., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: Eighteen years ago, the Institute of Medicine estimated that medical errors in hospital were a major cause of mortality. Since that time, reducing patient harm and improving the culture of patient safety have been national health care priorities. The study objectives were to describe the current state of patient safety in pediatric acute care settings and to assess whether modifiable features of organizations are associated with better safety culture., Methods: An observational cross-sectional study used 2015-2016 survey data on 177 hospitals in four U.S. states, including pediatric care in general hospitals and freestanding children's hospitals. Pediatric registered nurses providing direct patient care assessed hospital safety and the clinical work environment. Safety was measured by items from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Culture of Patient Safety survey. Hospital clinical work environment was measured by the National Quality Forum-endorsed Practice Environment Scale., Results: A total of 1875 pediatric nurses provided an assessment of safety in their hospitals. Sixty percent of pediatric nurses gave their hospitals less than an excellent grade on patient safety; significant variation across hospitals was observed. In the average hospital, 46% of nurses report that mistakes are held against them and 28% do not feel safe questioning authority regarding unsafe practices. Hospitals with better clinical work environments received better patient safety grades., Conclusions: The culture of patient safety varies across U.S. hospital pediatric settings. In better clinical work environments, nurses report more positive safety culture and higher safety grades., Competing Interests: The authors disclose no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Unrest in Chile over inequalities has underscored the need to improve public hospitals. Nursing has been overlooked as a solution to quality and access concerns, and nurse staffing is poor by international standards. Using Chile's new diagnosis-related groups system and surveys of nurses and patients, we provide information to policy makers on feasibility, net costs, and estimated improved outcomes associated with increasing nursing resources in public hospitals., Methods: For this multilevel cross-sectional study, we used data from surveys of hospital nurses to measure staffing and work environments in public and private Chilean adult high-complexity hospitals, which were linked with patient satisfaction survey and discharge data from the national diagnosis-related groups database for inpatients. All adult patients on medical and surgical units whose conditions permitted and who had been hospitalised for more than 48 h were invited to participate in the patient experience survey until 50 responses were obtained in each hospital. We estimated associations between nurse staffing and work environment quality with inpatient 30-day mortality, 30-day readmission, length of stay (LOS), patient experience, and care quality using multilevel random-effects logistic regression models and zero-truncated negative binomial regression models, with clustering of patients within hospitals., Findings: We collected and analysed surveys of 1652 hospital nurses from 40 hospitals (34 public and six private), satisfaction surveys of 2013 patients, and discharge data for 761 948 inpatients. Nurse staffing was significantly related to all outcomes, including mortality, after adjusting for patient characteristics, and the work environment was related to patient experience and nurses' quality assessments. Each patient added to nurses' workloads increased mortality (odds ratio 1·04, 95% CI 1·01-1·07, p<0·01), readmissions (1·02, 1·01-1·03, p<0·01), and LOS (incident rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 1·01-1·06, p<0·05). Nurse workloads across hospitals varied from six to 24 patients per nurse. Patients in hospitals with 18 patients per nurse, compared with those in hospitals with eight patients per nurse, had 41% higher odds of dying, 20% higher odds of being readmitted, 41% higher odds of staying longer, and 68% lower odds of rating their hospital highly. We estimated that savings from reduced readmissions and shorter stays would exceed the costs of adding nurses by US$1·2 million and $5·4 million if the additional nurses resulted in average workloads of 12 or ten patients per nurse, respectively., Interpretation: Improved hospital nurse staffing in Chile was associated with lower inpatient mortality, higher patient satisfaction, fewer readmissions, and shorter hospital stays, suggesting that greater investments in nurses could return higher quality of care and greater value., Funding: Sigma Theta Tau International, University of Pennsylvania Global Engagement Fund, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes, and Policy Research and Population Research Center., Translation: For the Spanish translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests We declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objectives: We measured within-hospital concordance of mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD) and newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) or opioid exposure (OE). Secondarily, we described the demographics of mothers and newborns with and without opioid-related diagnoses., Methods: We used hospital discharge abstracts from California, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 2016. Descriptive statistics were used to compare newborns and mothers with and without opioid-related diagnoses. Within-hospital frequencies of mothers with OUD and newborns with NAS and OE were compared. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated., Results: In 474 hospitals, we found 896 702 mothers (0.6% with OUD) and 910 867 newborns (0.47% with NAS, 0.85% with OE, and 0.07% with both). Although the frequency of mothers and newborns with opioid-related diagnoses in a hospital was strongly correlated ( r = 0.81), more infants were identified than mothers in most hospitals (68.3%). Mothers with OUD were more likely to be white (79% vs 40.9%), on Medicaid (75.4% vs 44.0%), and receive care in rural hospitals (20.6% vs 17.6%), compared with mothers without OUD. Newborns with NAS had demographics similar to women with OUD. Newborns with OE were disproportionately Black (22% vs 7%) or Hispanic (22% vs 9%)., Conclusions: More newborns are diagnosed with opioid-related disorders than mothers are. Although infants diagnosed with NAS had demographics similar to mothers with OUD, infants with OE were more likely to be Black or Hispanic. The lack of diagnostic coding of maternal OUD and the racial differences in diagnoses warrant attention., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

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Objectives: To determine the extent to which newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) are concentrated in some hospitals as compared with newborns without NAS and whether care quality and safety differed among these hospitals. We hypothesized that newborns with NAS would be cared for in poorer-quality hospitals., Methods: Secondary analysis of 3 2016 data sets: (1) the panel study of effects of changes in nursing on patient outcomes-US survey of hospital registered nurses regarding work conditions and safety, (2) inpatient discharge abstracts, and (3) the American Hospital Association annual survey. Newborns in 266 hospitals from the 4 states where the panel study of effects of changes in nursing on patient outcomes was conducted were included. We used Lorenz curves to determine if newborns with NAS were concentrated in different hospitals than newborns without NAS and whether care quality and safety differed among those hospitals. Quality and safety were assessed by staff nurses by using standard survey questions., Results: Of the 659 403 newborns in this study, 3130 were diagnosed with noniatrogenic NAS. We found that newborns with NAS were cared for in different hospitals compared with newborns without NAS (Gini coefficient 0.62, 95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.68) and that the hospitals in which they received care were rated as having poorer quality and safety (Gini coefficient 0.12, 95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.23)., Conclusions: Newborns with NAS are cared for in poorer-quality hospitals than other newborns. Our findings are of concern because poorer-quality care is linked to patient outcomes. As stakeholders seek to address the opioid epidemic and improve outcomes of newborns with NAS, our findings suggest the importance of examining hospital factors., Competing Interests: COMPANION PAPER: A companion to this article can be found online at www.hosspeds.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/hpeds.2020-003863 POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Background: Birth is the most common reason for hospitalization in the United States. Hospital variation in maternal outcomes is an important indicator of health care quality. Spontaneous vaginal birth (SVB) is the most optimal birth outcome for the majority of mothers and newborns. The purpose of this study was to examine hospital-level variation in SVB overall and among low-risk women in a four-state sample representing 25% of births in the United States in 2016., Methods: Women giving birth in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida were identified in 2016 state discharge abstracts. Patient data were merged with hospital data from the American Hospital Association's (AHA) 2016 Annual Survey. Overall and low-risk SVB rates were calculated for each hospital in the sample and stratified by bed size, teaching status, rurality, birth volume, and state., Results: Our final sample included 869 681 women who gave birth in 494 hospitals. The mean overall SVB rate in the sample was 61.1%, ranging from 16.8% to 79.9%. The mean low-risk SVB rate was 78% and ranged from 34.6% to 93.3%. Variation in SVB rates cut across all the hospital structural characteristic strata., Discussion: The wide variation in SVB rates indicates significant room for improvement in this maternal quality metric. Our finding, that hospitals of all types and locations had both low and high SVB rates, suggests that excellent maternal outcomes are possible in all hospital settings. The variation in SVB rates across hospitals warrants research into modifiable hospital factors that may be influencing SVB rates., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Aim: To document how changes in the hospital work environment and nurse staffing over time are associated with changes in missed nursing care., Background: Missed nursing care is considered an indicator of poorer care quality and has been associated with worse patient care experiences and health outcomes. Several systematic reviews of cross-sectional studies report that nurses in hospitals with supportive work environments and higher staffing miss less care. Causal evidence demonstrating these relationships is needed., Methods: This panel study utilized secondary data from 23,650 nurses surveyed in 2006 and 14,935 surveyed in 2016 in 458 hospitals from a four-state survey of random samples of licensed nurses., Results: Over the 10-year period, most hospitals exhibited improved work environments, better nurse staffing and more missed care. In hospitals with improved work environments or nurse staffing, the prevalence and frequency of missed care decreased significantly. The effect on missed care of changes in the work environment was greater than that of nurse staffing., Conclusions: Changes in the hospital work environment and staffing influence missed care., Implications for Nursing Management: Modifications in the work environment and staffing are strategies to mitigate care compromise. Nurse managers should investigate work settings in order to identify weaknesses., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aim(s): To determine relationships among missed nursing care, job enjoyment and intention to leave for neonatal nurses., Background: Being unable to provide required nursing care to infants could contribute to poorer neonatal nurse job outcomes, which may exacerbate staffing challenges. Little evidence exists about how missed nursing care relates to neonatal nurse job outcomes., Method(s): The design was cross-sectional. Secondary data from the 2016 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators Registered Nurse Survey were used, which included nurse ratings of job enjoyment, intention to leave and missed nursing care. American Hospital Association data from 2016 were used to describe hospitals. Linear and logistic regressions were calculated., Results: There were 5,824 neonatal nurses. Mean nurse job enjoyment was 4.26 out of 6 (SD = 0.97). On average, 15% of nurses intended to leave their position. Each one unit increase in missed nursing care was associated with a 0.26 decrease in job enjoyment and a 29% increased odds of intention to leave after controlling for nursing and hospital characteristics., Conclusions: Missed nursing care can influence nurse job enjoyment and intention to leave in neonatal care units., Implications for Nursing Management: Neonatal nurse managers should address missed nursing care to improve neonatal nurse job outcomes., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aim: To measure the association between the nurse work environment (NWE) and missed nursing care on labour and delivery (L&D) units., Background: L&D units provide a sizable fraction of acute hospital services to a unique population that is a national and global priority. L&D nurses are the frontline providers during labour. Maternal morbidity and mortality may be influenced by the NWE and missed care., Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized secondary data from 1,313 L&D staff nurses in 247 hospitals from a four-state nurse survey collected in 2005-2008., Results: Half of nurses missed care (range: zero to 100% across hospitals). Nurses on average missed 1.25 of 10 activities. The most commonly missed activities were comforting/talking with patients and teaching/counselling. In better as compared to poor NWEs, the odds and frequency of missed care were significantly lower., Conclusions: L&D nurses routinely miss necessary nursing activities. Labouring women's psychosocial, comfort and educational needs are compromised most often, likely impacting quality and outcomes. Nurse communication with colleagues and managers about missed care is warranted., Implications for Nursing Management: The L&D NWE is modifiable and appears to influence missed care. Managers should discuss missed care with staff and measure their NWE to identify actionable weaknesses., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patient satisfaction is measured as parent satisfaction. Parents are critical to the family-centered care model and can evaluate care. Several EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care (EMPATHIC) instruments were developed in the Netherlands to measure parent satisfaction with neonatal and pediatric intensive care. EMPATHIC instruments comprise five domains and a total score: information, care and treatment, organization, parental participation, and professional attitude. To our knowledge, the EMPATHIC has not been adapted for USA use. Objectives: (1) To select a relevant EMPATHIC instrument for our study. (2) To expand the content reflecting the role of nurses and the cultural heterogeneity of USA NICU infants. (3) To adapt the selected EMPATHIC instrument to USA English. (4) To establish psychometric properties of the linguistically adapted instrument. (5) To evaluate instrument performance with additional items. Methods: The EMPATHIC-30 was selected based on shortest length, high overlap with neonatal EMPATHIC-N, and availability of a validated Spanish-language version. Six items from the EMPATHIC-N were added, two of which were split into separate items, resulting in the EMPATHIC-38. A neonatal nurse practitioner adapted wording to USA English. Cognitive debriefing was performed with eight NICU parents to evaluate adapted wording. Parent survey data from a study about missed nursing care and NICU parent satisfaction were utilized. Internal consistency of the five domains and overall score was measured by Cronbach's alpha. Spearman's rank correlations were computed for domains and overall score with four validity measures. Differential validity was determined using 13 parent demographic subgroups. Results: Data were from 282 parents. Parent race was predominantly White (61%) or Black (22%). One fifth were Hispanic. The adapted wording was satisfactory. Four of the five EMPATHIC-30 and EMPATHIC-38 domains had Cronbach alphas at or above 0.70, indicating acceptable reliability. Correlations between the domain, total scores, and validity indicators ranged from 0.30 to 0.57, indicating positive, moderate associations. Results were replicated in demographic subgroups. Reliability and validity of the three domains with additional items were better than or equivalent to values for the original. Conclusion: The linguistically adapted EMPATHIC-30-NICU-USA and the expanded EMPATHIC-38-NICU-USA exhibit satisfactory psychometric properties and are suitable for use in USA NICUs., (Copyright © 2020 Lake, Smith, Staiger, Schoenauer and Rogowski.)

The health outcomes of infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may be jeopardized when required nursing care is missed. This correlational study of missed care in a U.S. NICU sample adds national scope and an important explanatory variable, patient acuity. Using 2016 NICU registered nurse survey responses ( N = 5,861) from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators, we found that 36% of nurses missed one or more care activities on the past shift. Missed care prevalence varied widely across units. Nurses with higher workloads, higher acuity assignments, or in poor work environments were more likely to miss care. The most common activities missed involved patient comfort and counseling and parent education. Workloads have increased and work environments have deteriorated compared with 8 years ago. Nurses' assignments should account for patient acuity. NICU nurse staffing and work environments warrant attention to reduce missed care and promote optimal infant and family outcomes.

Background: International evidence shows that there are organizational factors and nurse job outcomes that may negatively affect healthcare quality., Aim: To measure and analyze associations between nurse organizational factors, such as staffing ratios and skill mix, and job outcomes in public hospitals in Chile., Material and Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study of 1,855 registered nurses working in medical-surgical units in 37 public hospitals was conducted. Data collection followed the RN4CAST research protocol. Inferential analyses used logistic regression models., Results: The survey was answered by 1,395 registered nurses in 34 hospitals. The average staffing ratio was 14 patients-per-nurse, and the average skill mix was 31% registered nurses. Of all nurses, 35% reported burnout, 22% were dissatisfied, and 33% intended to leave. Being burned out increased by 9 and 6% the odds of being dissatisfied and the intent to leave, respectively (Odds ratio (OR) 1.09, p < 0.01 and 1.06, p < 0.01). Being dissatisfied increased by five times the odds of intent to leave (OR 5.19, p < 0.01)., Conclusions: Staffing levels, burnout, and intent to leave warrant healthcare and governmental authorities' attention. All these factors may be threatening healthcare quality and safety.

Purpose: Maternal outcomes in the United States are the poorest of any high-income country. Efforts to improve the quality and safety of maternity care are frequently reported by individual hospitals, limiting generalizability. The purpose of this study is to describe maternity care quality and safety in hospitals in four states., Study Design and Methods: This cross-sectional study is a secondary analysis of the Panel Study of Effects of Changes in Nursing on Patient Outcomes data. Registered nurses reported on maternity unit quality, safety, and work environment. Descriptive statistics and clustered linear regressions were used., Results: The sample included 1,165 nurses reporting on 166 units in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida in 2015. One-third of nurses, on average, gave their units an overall safety grade of "excellent," but this decreased to less than one-sixth of nurses in units with poor work environments. Overall, 65% of nurses reported that their mistakes were held against them. A good work environment, compared with poor, was significantly associated with fewer nurses grading safety as poor (β -35.6, 95% CI -42.9 - -28.3)., Clinical Implications: Our research found that the nurses in the majority of hospitals with maternity units in four states representing a quarter of the nation's annual births felt their units do not provide excellent quality care and have a less than optimal safety climate.

Aims and Objectives: To assess the nursing practice environments and nurse job-related outcomes in two types of hospitals in Saudi Arabia., Background: The nursing shortage is a challenging problem in Saudi hospitals. Studies have shown that poor practice environments and high patient-to-nurse ratios are associated with poor nurse job outcomes (i.e. job dissatisfaction, burnout and intention to leave) and that can lead to nurse turnover and compound the nursing shortage. However, little research has been conducted on this topic in Saudi Arabia., Design: A cross-sectional design. A model that links the nursing practice environment and patient-to-nurse ratio to nurse job outcomes was tested through a path analysis of survey data., Methods: A sample of 404 nurses from public and military hospitals in Saudi Arabia completed a survey that included the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and questions related to job dissatisfaction and intention to leave the job. A model of nurse turnover was used to test the relationships among study variables. This study was carried out in accordance with the STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies., Results: The nursing practice environment and nurse job outcomes were better in military hospital compared with public hospital. Overall, 53% of participants had high burnout, 39% were dissatisfied, and 26% intended to leave their jobs. The path analysis showed that the nursing practice environment and patient-to-nurse ratio were predictors of burnout and job dissatisfaction, which in turn lead to intention to leave. The tested model had good fit and explained the direct and indirect effects of study variables., Conclusion: Poor nursing practice environments and high patient-to-nurse ratios contribute to poor nurse job outcomes in Saudi hospitals., Relevance to Clinical Practice: Nurse leaders can focus on enhancing practice environments and reducing patient-to-nurse ratios as retention strategies to improve nurse job outcomes., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate quality and safety of care in acute pediatric settings from the perspectives of nurses working at the bedside and to investigate hospital-level factors associated with more favorable quality and safety., Methods: Using data from a large survey of registered nurses in 330 acute care hospitals, we described nurses' assessments of safety and quality of care in inpatient pediatric settings, including freestanding children's hospitals (FCHs) (n = 21) and general hospitals with pediatric units (n = 309). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the effects of being a FCH on favorable reports on safety and quality before and after adjusting for hospital-level and nurse characteristics and Magnet status., Results: Nurses in FCHs were more likely to report favorably on quality and safety after we accounted for hospital-level and individual nurse characteristics; however, adjusting for a hospital's Magnet status rendered associations between FCHs and quality and safety insignificant. Nurses in Magnet hospitals were more likely to report favorably on quality and safety., Conclusions: Quality and safety of pediatric care remain uneven; however, the organizational attributes of Magnet hospitals explain, in large part, more favorable quality and safety in FCHs compared with pediatric units in general acute care hospitals. Modifiable features of the nurse work environment common to Magnet hospitals hold promise for improving quality and safety of care. Transforming nurse work environments to keep patients safe, as recommended by the National Academy of Medicine 20 years ago, remains an unfinished agenda in pediatric inpatient settings., Competing Interests: POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2020 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

Objective: To develop a nurse staffing prediction model and evaluate deviation from predicted nurse staffing as a contributor to patient outcomes., Data Sources: Secondary data collection conducted 2017-2018, using the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative databases. We included 276 054 infants born 2008-2016 and cared for in 99 California neonatal intensive care units (NICUs)., Study Design: Repeated-measures observational study. We developed a nurse staffing prediction model using machine learning and hierarchical linear regression and then quantified deviation from predicted nurse staffing in relation to health care-associated infections, length of stay, and mortality using hierarchical logistic and linear regression., Data Collection Methods: We linked NICU-level nurse staffing and organizational data to patient-level risk factors and outcomes using unique identifiers for NICUs and patients., Principal Findings: An 11-factor prediction model explained 35 percent of the nurse staffing variation among NICUs. Higher-than-predicted nurse staffing was associated with decreased risk-adjusted odds of health care-associated infection (OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.63-0.98), but not with length of stay or mortality., Conclusions: Organizational and patient factors explain much of the variation in nurse staffing. Higher-than-predicted nurse staffing was associated with fewer infections. Prospective studies are needed to determine causality and to quantify the impact of staffing reforms on health outcomes., (© Health Research and Educational Trust.)

Background: The satisfaction of parents of infants in neonatal intensive care is important to parent-infant bonding and parents' ability to care for their baby, including after discharge. Given the principal caregiver role of nurses in this setting, parent satisfaction is influenced by high quality nursing care. Nursing care that is required but missed, such as counseling and support, might influence parent satisfaction. How missed nursing care relates to parent satisfaction is unknown. Objective: To describe the satisfaction of parents of infants in neonatal intensive care and to determine how satisfaction relates to missed nursing care in a sample of USA nursing units. Methods: The design was cross-sectional and correlational. Thirty neonatal intensive care units that participate in the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators were recruited. To maximize sample variation in missed care, the highest and lowest quartile hospitals on missed nursing care, measured by nurse survey, were eligible. Ten parents of infants who were to be discharged were recruited from each site to complete a survey. Parent satisfaction was measured by the EMPATHIC-38 instrument, comprising five subscales: information, care and treatment, organization, parental participation, and professional attitude, and a total satisfaction score. Multivariate regression models were estimated. Results: Parent satisfaction was high (5.70 out of 6.00). The prevalence of missed care was 25 and 51% for low and high missed care units, respectively, and 40% for all units. On average, nurses missed 1.06 care activities; in the low and high missed care units the averages were 0.46 and 1.32. Over 10% of nurses missed activities that involved the parent, e.g., teaching, helping breastfeeding mothers, and preparing families for discharge. One standard deviation decrease in missed care activities at the unit level was associated with a 0.08-point increase in parent satisfaction with care and treatment ( p = 0.01). Conclusion: Parents in USA neonatal intensive care units are highly satisfied. Neonatal intensive care nurses routinely miss care. Parent satisfaction with care and treatment is related to missed nursing care. Nursing care that is missed relates primarily to the care of the baby by the parents, which could have long term health and developmental consequences., (Copyright © 2020 Lake, Smith, Staiger, Hatfield, Cramer, Kalisch and Rogowski.)

Objective: The purpose was to compare nurse education, patient-to-nurse staffing, nursing skill mix, and nurse work environments across hospitals depending on extent of rurality., Design: Cross-sectional, comparative, and descriptive., Sample: The final sample included 566 urban, 49 large, 18 small, and 9 isolated hospitals from California, Florida, and Pennsylvania., Measurement: Data collected from large random samples from the 2005-2008 Multi-State Nursing Care and Patient Safety Study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and National Institutes of Health were linked to 2005-2006 American Hospital Association data. Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes developed by the University of Washington and the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service were used to determine the extent of hospital rurality across the sample., Results: Hospital percentages of baccalaureate prepared nurses differed significantly among urban (38%), large (28%), small (31%), and isolated rural hospitals (21%). Patient-to-registered nurse ratios in urban (4.8), large (5.6), small (5.6), and isolated rural hospitals (7.3) differed. Rural hospital nursing skill mix differed, and was lowest in isolated rural hospitals (65%). Nursing foundations for quality care were poorer in large, small, and isolated rural hospitals., Conclusion: Results support bolstering rural nursing resources in more remote locations, potentially through rural health policies., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Introduction: The ongoing challenge for Chilean hospitals of meeting population health needs merits attention to the health care workforce. No studies have explored how nursing might contribute to addressing this challenge. International research shows that organizational characteristics of the nursing workforce and practice environment are associated with patient outcomes. Chile lacks actionable evidence that applies to its context of care., Method: First, a review of international literature was developed to synthesize evidence on the association between organizational characteristics of the nursing workforce and patient outcomes. Second, a review of literature and other nonacademic sources was performed to describe the context of care and data pertaining to nurses in Chilean hospitals. Third, a research agenda for efficient utilization of the hospital nursing workforce in Chile was proposed., Results: International evidence shows that low patient-to-nurse ratios, high skill mix, and good practice environments are associated with better patient outcomes. Chilean hospitals have financial constraints that greatly influence the context of nursing practice and the scarce data about nursing organization call for greater attention., Conclusion: The establishment and implementation of a research agenda is needed to build local evidence regarding effective organization of nurses to inform policies and to improve patient outcomes in Chile.

Introduction: Though rural hospitals serve about one fifth of the United States (U.S.), few studies have investigated relationships among nursing resources and rural hospital adverse events., Objectives: The purpose was to determine relationships among nursing skill mix (proportion of Registered Nurses (RNs) to all nursing staff), the work environment and adverse events (medication errors, patient falls with injury, pressure ulcers, and urinary tract infections) in rural hospitals., Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, nurse survey data from a large study examining nurse organizational factors, patient safety, and quality from four U.S. states were linked to the 2006 American Hospital Association data. The work environment was measured using the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI). Nurses reported adverse event frequency. Data analyses were descriptive and inferential., Results: On average, 72% of nursing staff were RNs (range = 45% to 100%). Adverse event frequency ranged from 0% to 67%, across 76 hospitals. In regression models, a 10-point increase in the proportion of RNs among all nursing staff and a one standard deviation increase in the PES-NWI score were significantly associated with decreased odds of frequent adverse events., Conclusion: Rural hospitals that increase the nursing skill mix and improve the work environment may achieve reduced adverse event frequency., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2019.)