Published in:
Open Access
01-01-2017 | Original Research
Nursing Skill Mix, Nurse Staffing Level, and Physical Restraint Use in US Hospitals: a Longitudinal Study
Authors:
Vincent S. Staggs, PhD, Danielle M. Olds, PhD, RN, Emily Cramer, PhD, Ronald I. Shorr, MD
Published in:
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|
Issue 1/2017
Login to get access
Abstract
Background
Although it is plausible that nurse staffing is associated with use of physical restraints in hospitals, this has not been well established. This may be due to limitations in previous cross-sectional analyses lacking adequate control for unmeasured differences in patient-level variables among nursing units.
Objective
To conduct a longitudinal study, with units serving as their own control, examining whether nurse staffing relative to a unit’s long-term average is associated with restraint use.
Design
We analyzed 17 quarters of longitudinal data using mixed logistic regression, modeling quarterly odds of unit restraint use as a function of quarterly staffing relative to the unit’s average staffing across study quarters.
Subjects
3101 medical, surgical, and medical-surgical units in US hospitals participating in the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators during 2006–2010. Units had to report at least one quarter with restraint use and one quarter without.
Main Measures
We studied two nurse staffing variables: staffing level (total nursing hours per patient day) and nursing skill mix (proportion of nursing hours provided by RNs). Outcomes were any use of restraint, regardless of reason, and use of restraint for fall prevention.
Key Results
Nursing skill mix was inversely correlated with restraint use for fall prevention and for any reason. Compared to average quarters, odds of fall prevention restraint and of any restraint were respectively 16 % (95 % CI: 3–29 %) and 18 % (95 % CI: 8–29 %) higher for quarters with very low skill mix.
Conclusions
In this longitudinal study there was a strong negative correlation between nursing skill mix and physical restraint use. Ensuring that skill mix is consistently adequate should reduce use of restraint.