Nursing workforce issues study
Results of the international RN4CAST study into links between nursing workforce issues and patient outcomes in 13 countries have been published in the British Medical Journal today. The study in England, which was led by researchers at the National Nursing Research Unit (NNRU) at King's College London and the University of Southampton, reveals that the levels of "burnout" and job dissatisfaction experienced by English nurses are some of the worst in Europe. The study was led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in the U.S. and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in Europe. Researchers in England surveyed over 2,900 nurses based at over 40 hospitals across the country and results have been compared with similar samples from 11 other European countries and from the USA. 42% of English nurses surveyed were assessed as being burnt out, second only to Greece, while 44% stated that they intended to leave their job in the next year due to dissatisfaction. Anne Marie Rafferty, Professor of Nursing Policy at King's College London, said: 'Our study reveals huge variation, both between hospitals and within hospitals, on core workforce issues such as nurse to patient ratios. It is also clear that England's nurses are working in highly pressurised environments, resulting in lower levels of job satisfaction and greater "burnout" compared to some other European health economies. We now need to analyse this variation in greater depth to assess - are the different staffing levels we found a reflection of different needs, which are being met equally well?
