Patient deaths from pneumonia and acute myocardial infarction are significantly more likely in hospitals where nurses reported schedules with long work hours, according to a Newswise report.
The study, conducted by the University of Maryland School of Nursing in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, linked patient outcome and staffing information from 71 acute care hospitals in Illinois and North Carolina with the survey responses of 633 randomly selected nurses who worked in these hospitals.
According to the report, most U.S. hospitals use 12-hour nursing shifts as opposed to eight-hour shifts. In the study, the work schedule component that was most frequently linked to mortality, along with long work hours, was lack of time off the job.
Read the Newswise report on the study on nurse hours.
Read more on patient mortality rates:
-Mortality Rates Unreliable as Hospital Quality Metric
-Study: Hospitalists Reduce Hospitalization Costs by $1,400 Per Stay
-13.5% of Medicare Patients Have Adverse Events in Hospital
The study, conducted by the University of Maryland School of Nursing in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, linked patient outcome and staffing information from 71 acute care hospitals in Illinois and North Carolina with the survey responses of 633 randomly selected nurses who worked in these hospitals.
According to the report, most U.S. hospitals use 12-hour nursing shifts as opposed to eight-hour shifts. In the study, the work schedule component that was most frequently linked to mortality, along with long work hours, was lack of time off the job.
Read the Newswise report on the study on nurse hours.
Read more on patient mortality rates:
-Mortality Rates Unreliable as Hospital Quality Metric
-Study: Hospitalists Reduce Hospitalization Costs by $1,400 Per Stay
-13.5% of Medicare Patients Have Adverse Events in Hospital