Hampshire university to look at how nurse staffing affects patient care

The University of Southampton study will examine the relationship between nurse staffing levels, failure to observe patients’ vital signs and the possible consequences.

These could include cardiac arrest calls, unexpected admission to intensive care and even death.

From its findings it will be able to recommend nursing numbers needed on wards to ensure patient care and safety.

The university says missed opportunities to observe and act upon the deterioration of a patient’s condition are thought to be important factors in preventable hospital death.

Previous studies have relied on nurses to report the care they missed.

However, this research will aim for greater accuracy by using data directly from ward records from a number of sources including nurses’ handheld devices, a cardiac arrest database, intensive care unit admissions and laboratory records.

Funded by the National Institute for Health Research: Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme, the Southampton University is working with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and the universities of Portsmouth and York on the study.

Through the trust, researchers will gather anonymised information from 32 general inpatient wards across 100,000 shifts.

It will use data on nurse staffing levels, combined with vital signs observations and information on the outcome of patients’ treatments.

The trust runs Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital, Gosport War Memorial Hospital, St Mary’s Community Campus, Fareham Community Hospital, Petersfield Community Hospital and eight Renal Dialysis Units across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Around 7,000 staff cater to a local population of around 675,000.

The study will conclude by estimating the number of staff required on different types of hospital wards to ensure the observation of vital signs by nurses remains at an acceptable level.

It will assess the costs and consequences of different staffing policies and give guidance on the importance and costs of different mixes of nursing skills to achieve consistent observation of patients to ensure their safe care.

The authors aim to publish their findings in December 2017.

Professor Peter Griffiths of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton, who is leading the research, said: “The 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.”

Debra Elliott, Deputy Director of Nursing at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said that the research would be “an invaluable learning experience” and would scrutinise the effect of staffing levels in unprecedented detail.