Effect of nurse staffing level, length of work experience on HAIs

Editor's Note

This study from Finland examines the associations between nurse understaffing and limited work experience on the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

Patient and staff data from 40 care units and 261,067 admissions in one hospital district in Finland were analyzed.

The researchers found that 1- or 2-day exposure to nurse understaffing or nurses with limited work experience was not associated with an overall incidence of HAIs.

When examining specific HAI types:

• 1-day exposure to a low proportion of nurses with more than 3 years of in-hospital experience and a low proportion of nurses more than 25 years of age was associated with an increased risk of bloodstream infections, but a lower risk of pneumonia.
• 2-day exposure to nurse understaffing was associated with an increased risk of surgical-site infections.

Because the results were inconsistent, the evidence suggests that a shortage of nursing staff and lack of experienced nurses does not always increase HAIs in patients, the researchers say. It is possible, they added, that the lag time for infection is less than or more than 2 days, and that incubation times are different for different HAIs.