Nursing staff and patients’ length of stay
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance
ISSN: 0952-6862
Article publication date: 8 July 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of nurse staffing, nurse education and work experience on patients’ length of stay (LOS) in the Greek public hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study, with retrospective administrative data, was implemented. From all seven Regional Health Authorities of Greece, 25 general surgical units in 17 public hospitals participated in the study.
Findings
All over the hospitals were studied, 32,287 patients ⩾17 years old and 203 nursing staff, who were working in the study units, were included in the analysis. According to the multivariate linear regression model, increased years of experience as a nurse (b= −0.04, 95% CI= −0.06 to −0.02, p=0.001) and increased percentage of registered nurse to the total nursing staff (b= −1.18, CI= −1.88 to −0.47, p=0.03) were associated with decreased patient LOS.
Originality/value
This was the first extended study in Greece, which explored the relationship between nurse staffing, nurse education, work experience and the LOS. The role that nurse staffing play together with its characteristics in the provision toward the quality healthcare services has already been recognized worldwide. The findings revealed the great shortage of nursing staff and the significant correlation between the work experience and educational level to patients’ LOS.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors declare no conflict of interest and no source of financial grants or other funding.
Citation
Moisoglou, I., Galanis, P., Meimeti, E., Dreliozi, A., Kolovos, P. and Prezerakos, P. (2019), "Nursing staff and patients’ length of stay", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 1004-1012. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHCQA-09-2018-0215
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited