Death risk from stressed nurses

Study: Death risk increases due to stressed caregivers

02/27/2014

The risk of death in hospitals can increase significantly due to an excessive workload of nurses. This is the conclusion of a recent European study. In addition, there is a link between the risk of death and the level of training of the nursing staff.

Relationship between death rates and workload
The number of deaths in hospitals can increase significantly due to an excessive workload of nurses. One on Wednesday in the trade magazine „The Lancet“ published European-wide study gives significant indications of a corresponding connection. Thus, higher death rates may be related to a higher workload of nurses and a lower level of education of caregivers and nurses. Especially in times when there are many cuts in health due to austerity, these are dramatic news.

Death rate of seven percent in some hospitals
For the study, the researchers evaluated data from a total of 420,000 patients over the age of 50 and the deaths in 300 hospitals. These were patients who had undergone conventional surgery such as hip, knee or cecal interventions. The death rate was generally low at 1.0 to 1.5 percent. However, there were hospitals in each country with a death rate of more than seven percent. The investigation was conducted in Belgium, Great Britain, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Higher share of nurses with a university degree reduces mortality risk
According to the study, every patient added to a nurse's workload increased the death risk by seven percent. In turn, this risk sank by seven percent at each ten percent higher education level in nursing. According to the evaluations, in hospitals where one caregiver had to care for six patients and 60 percent of carers had a university degree, the death risk was one-third lower than in facilities where one caregiver cared for eight patients and only 30 percent of the Nursing staff had a higher education.

Massive job cuts in German hospitals
In German clinics, there is now a chronic lack of care due to the massive job cuts in recent years. This not only leads to an overburdening of the employees, but it also becomes increasingly a risk for the patients. The problems are home-made, since 50,000 full-time jobs have been reduced in German clinics since 1996, despite the increasing workload and the steadily rising number of patients. That's 14 percent, or in other words, every seventh place. (Sb)