• 54.9 percent of the nurses “would not definitely recommend their hospital.”
• 28.9 percent gave their hospital an unfavorable grade on infection prevention.
• 37.3 percent said that “important information is lost” during shift changes.
• 41.9 percent said that “things fall between the cracks.”
• 36.9 percent said that “staff do not feel free to question authority.”
The number of nurses answering each question varied, ranging from about 12,900 to 13,500. Aiken, who is also the director of Penn’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, was joined on the study by authors from Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, Rutgers University, the University of Delaware and Emory University.
The researchers found some positive signs when comparing the results with what nurses said when asked the same questions in 2005. On average, nurses gave higher grades for quality of care and patient safety at hospitals where they said the “clinical work environment” had improved since 2005. Work environment was evaluated based on factors such as the degree of managerial support for nurses, staffing levels, and amounts of resources and training.
At hospitals where nurses said the work environment had improved, researchers found a 15 percent jump in the number of nurses who gave the hospitals favorable grades on patient safety — defined as an A or a B. But at hospitals where nurses said the work environment had worsened since 2005, researchers found a 19 percent drop in the number of nurses rating patient safety with an A or a B.