Is it cost-effective to deploy more nurses in hospital wards?
Is it cost-effective to deploy more nurses in hospital wards?
Currently the National Health Service (NHS), in common with many health systems around the world, faces shortages of registered nurses. Common sense and a huge body of evidence suggest this is far from ideal to deliver high-quality patient care. In acute general hospitals, when there are fewer registered nurses, more patient care is missed, quality is reduced and patient outcomes are worse. But fixing the problem is likely to be expensive and it is important to ask if this is the best way to spend money in a resource-limited system. Are there alternatives to using registered nurses? In this Evidence Brief, we summarise a recent systematic review answering whether investing in registered nurses represents value for money, and considers whether using support staff with lower qualification levels might provide a more cost-effective solution to nurse shortages.
cost-effectiveness, nursing staff, support staff
Griffiths, Peter
ac7afec1-7d72-4b83-b016-3a43e245265b
Ejebu, Ourega-Zoé
4f545ae3-4823-44ab-8d59-185d30929ada
6 March 2024
Griffiths, Peter
ac7afec1-7d72-4b83-b016-3a43e245265b
Ejebu, Ourega-Zoé
4f545ae3-4823-44ab-8d59-185d30929ada
Griffiths, Peter
,
Ejebu, Ourega-Zoé
(ed.)
(2024)
Is it cost-effective to deploy more nurses in hospital wards?
(Evidence Brief, 25)
2pp.
Record type:
Monograph
(Working Paper)
Abstract
Currently the National Health Service (NHS), in common with many health systems around the world, faces shortages of registered nurses. Common sense and a huge body of evidence suggest this is far from ideal to deliver high-quality patient care. In acute general hospitals, when there are fewer registered nurses, more patient care is missed, quality is reduced and patient outcomes are worse. But fixing the problem is likely to be expensive and it is important to ask if this is the best way to spend money in a resource-limited system. Are there alternatives to using registered nurses? In this Evidence Brief, we summarise a recent systematic review answering whether investing in registered nurses represents value for money, and considers whether using support staff with lower qualification levels might provide a more cost-effective solution to nurse shortages.
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25_03_Cost_Effectiveness_of_Staffing_Level_Eprints
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Published date: 6 March 2024
Keywords:
cost-effectiveness, nursing staff, support staff
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Local EPrints ID: 487883
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/487883
PURE UUID: ae8a674c-1f17-4a30-af3a-da1fabec4fb5
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Date deposited: 08 Mar 2024 17:32
Last modified: 02 Aug 2024 01:56
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