Internal Medicine ·
Higher Nurse Staffing Linked to Shorter ED Boarding Times
A study of 335 hospitals in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania found that emergency departments with four or fewer patients per nurse had average boarding times about 20 minutes shorter than those with five or more patients per nurse. The findings are reported in the November issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing.
- Study included 335 hospitals in three states.
- Four or fewer patients per nurse linked to shorter boarding.
- Average difference in boarding time was about 20 minutes.
- Observational findings do not establish causation.
Researchers reviewed nurse staffing data and emergency department (ED) boarding times from 335 hospitals in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The study examined whether hospital nurse staffing levels were associated with the time patients spent boarding in the ED; the source does not provide further details on the study period, analytic methods or patient-level characteristics.
Hospitals where each nurse cared for four or fewer patients had average ED boarding times about 20 minutes shorter than hospitals where nurses were responsible for five or more patients. The authors identify staffing as a potential strategy for reducing boarding and improving patient throughput. The findings are observational and do not establish that staffing differences caused the difference in boarding time. They are also based on hospitals in three states, and the press release provides no confidence intervals or adjustment details. The study appears in the November issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing.
In practice
For hospital teams considering strategies to reduce ED boarding, this study reports that hospitals with four or fewer patients per nurse had average boarding times about 20 minutes shorter than those with five or more. The finding may support further evaluation of staffing as an operational factor, but it does not show that changing staffing will reduce boarding. The evidence is observational, covers hospitals in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the source provides no details on adjustment methods or uncertainty estimates.
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PR Newswire – Health: Latest Journal of Emergency Nursing Links Nurse Staffing to ED Boarding ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.