The impact of nursing surveillance on failure to rescue

Greater amounts of nursing surveillance is thought to decrease failure to rescue but studies to date have used nurse staffing levels as a proxy for nursing surveillance. The purpose of this nursing effectiveness study was to examine the unique treatment effect of nursing surveillance on failure to rescue. Data were abstracted from 9 electronic clinical data repositories including the nursing documentation system that used the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) to record nursing care. Nursing surveillance was quantified as "high use" when the subjects received it an average of 12 times per day or more. Propensity scores were used to match subjects who had received high-dose nursing surveillance with subjects who received low-dose nursing surveillance (average of less than 12 times a day). The results indicate that when nursing surveillance is performed an average of 12 times a day or greater, there is a significant (p = .0058) decrease in the odds of experiencing failure to rescue (odds ratio [OR] = 0.52) compared to when surveillance was delivered an average of less than 12 times a day. Additional unique variables included in this study are robust levels of nurse staffing based on hourly data, medical treatments, pharmaceutical treatments, and nursing treatments. The use of propensity scores helped determine the unique contribution of nursing surveillance on failure to rescue in this observational study.