Increased nurse staffing has a marked effect upon patient outcomes in paediatric emergency departments, a recent study has shown.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, analysed administrative data of 21,956 patients gathered from a university hospital’s paediatric emergency department in the first half of 2019.

It found that increases of nursing numbers reduced the average stay of patients in the emergency department by 2% per additional nursing staff member.

Further, the study found that a decline in nurse-to-patient ratios correlated with an increase of patients leaving before treatment completion.

It concluded that nurse-to-patient ratios did in fact affect patient outcomes and quality of care in the scenario studied.

While studies on the effects of nurse-to-patient ratios on patient outcomes have been commonplace over the past few decades, the study is the first to focus on a paediatric emergency department.

The study was conducted by a Finish team, led by nursing academic Katja Janhunen.

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