Minimum nurse staffing policy intervention in Queensland Australia improved nurse wellbeing and patient safety: A quasi-experimental intervention study.
| Title: | Minimum nurse staffing policy intervention in Queensland Australia improved nurse wellbeing and patient safety: A quasi-experimental intervention study. |
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| Authors: | Lasater KB; Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: karenbl@nursing.upenn.edu.; Aiken LH; Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.; Douglas C; School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia; Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; Metro North Hospital and Health Service, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, QLD, Australia.; Windsor C; School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia; Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.; Yates P; School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia; Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.; Smith HL; Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.; McHugh MD; Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. |
| Source: | International journal of nursing studies [Int J Nurs Stud] 2025 Nov; Vol. 171, pp. 105178. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Aug 06. |
| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Journal Info: | Publisher: Pergamon Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0400675 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1873-491X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00207489 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Nurs Stud Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: Oxford ; New York : Pergamon Press; Original Publication: Oxford. |
| MeSH Terms: | Nursing Staff, Hospital*/psychology ; Patient Safety* ; Personnel Staffing and Scheduling*; Humans ; Queensland ; Job Satisfaction ; Burnout, Professional ; Quality of Health Care |
| Abstract: | Background: Nurse retention and wellbeing have reached alarmingly low levels in recent years and health systems globally are searching for large-scale systemic solutions to reduce nurse burnout, improve wellbeing, and increase job satisfaction and retention while simultaneously enhancing patient care quality and safety.; Objective: To evaluate whether a minimum nurse staffing policy intervention in Queensland Australia improved nurse wellbeing, intentions to leave employment, and patient safety.; Methods: This is a quasi-experimental intervention study in which we compared nurse outcomes, patient safety measures, quality of care indicators, and operational failures among 27 hospitals subject to a minimum nurse staffing policy (i.e. intervention hospitals) and 41 hospitals not subject to the policy (i.e. comparison hospitals) at two points in time: prior to implementation of the policy (i.e. baseline) and two years after implementation (i.e. post-implementation). Percentages of nurses with unfavorable outcomes and unfavorable ratings of quality of care and patient safety are reported for intervention and comparison hospitals at baseline and post-implementation of the staffing policy. Fixed effects logistic regression models evaluated the interaction between the intervention effect and the post-implementation period to report the impact of the staffing policy on outcomes.; Results: The minimum nurse staffing policy intervention was associated with improvements in staffing, nurse wellbeing and job outcomes, and quality of care and patient safety in the intervention hospitals. Nurses in intervention hospitals had 24 % lower odds of high burnout (OR 0.76, 95 % CI 0.61-0.94, p |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. An author (Linda Aiken) is an Editorial Board Member for IJNS and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. |
| Grant Information: | R01 NR014855 United States NR NINR NIH HHS |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Burnout; Hospitals; Nursing; Policy; Staffing |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20250822 Date Completed: 20250928 Latest Revision: 20260506 |
| Update Code: | 20260506 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2025.105178 |
| PMID: | 40845827 |
| Database: | MEDLINE |
Journal Article