How Do Working Conditions Affect Nurses and Their Patients?
New Study to Examine Use of Overtime and Temporary Workers Ask nurses what their number one concern is these days and the answer is usually poor working conditions by which they mean short-staffed units and mandatory overtime. Those conditions, they say, jeopardize patients and their own health and safety. But very little is known about how various workplace conditions affect patient outcomes or how they relate to RN stress, burnout, or staff turnover. An ambitious new study by a team from Harvard University School of Public Health is now beginning to examine these questions. Led by Jack Needleman, the research team includes three RNs, NYSNA member Chris Kovner of NYU, Eileen McNeely of Harvard, and Ann Minnick of Rush-Presbyterian in Chicago. The two-year study is unusual in that it will proceed on both a broad scale, analyzing staffing data from hospitals across the country, and on a small scale, examining staffing on the RN to patient level. To obtain information on the RN to patien
