Policy Implications of Nurse Staffing Legislation

California's minimum nurse staffing legislation: results from a natural experiment.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether, following implementation of California's minimum nurse staffing legislation, changes in acuity-adjusted nurse staffing and quality of care in California hospitals outpaced similar changes in hospitals in comparison states without such regulations. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey of Hospitals, the California O...

Nurse Staffing, Legislative Alternatives and Health Care Policy

Implications of the California nurse staffing mandate for other states.

OBJECTIVES To determine whether nurse staffing in California hospitals, where state-mandated minimum nurse-to-patient ratios are in effect, differs from two states without legislation and whether those differences are associated with nurse and patient outcomes. DATA SOURCES Primary survey data from 22,336 hospital staff nurses in California, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in 2006 and state hosp...

The California nurse staffing mandate: implications for other states.

In 2004, California became the first state to implement minimum nurse-to-patient staffing requirements in acute care hospitals. It remains the only state to enact such requirements, although at least 18 states have introduced nurse staffing legislation. The goals of the legislation were to reduce nurse workloads, improve recruitment and retention of nurses, and improve quality of care. This Iss...

Absenteeism and Nurse Staffing

Nurse managers regularly make decisions that include assigning nurses with similar skills to similar inpatient units, adjusting staffing when anticipated demand exceeds available nurse shifts, and choosing the number of nurses who float to different units depending on realized demand. All of these decisions are affected by absenteeism. We use data from multiple nursing units of two hospitals to...