Nurses working longer hours badly impact quality of care, research by Hampshire experts suggest.

Researchers at the University of Southampton and the National Nursing Research Unit (NNRU) carried out a survey of more than 30,000 nurses across Europe working longer shifts and more overtime.

It found that they are more likely to rate the standard of care delivered on their ward as poor and also gave a negative rating of their hospital’s safety.

The study survey of nurses in over 450 hospitals across 12 European countries was part of an international research programme looking at links between nursing workforce issues and patient outcomes.

It showed nearly a third of English nurses are working shifts of more than 12 hours, something which is becoming more common.

Professor Peter Griffiths, chairman of Health Services Research at the University of Southampton who led the study, said: “Moving from three shorter shifts per day to two longer ones has been claimed to save up to 14 per cent of salary costs.

“But at what cost to the patient? This strategy needs to be looked at in much more detail. If nurses perform less effectively and less safely, what’s the point?”