The impact of nurse staffing methodologies on nurse and patient outcomes: A systematic review

Aim of this study is to systematically review and synthesize available evidence to identify the association between nurse staffing methodologies and nurse and patient outcomes.

Systematic review and narrative synthesis.

A search of MEDLINE (EBSCO), CINAHL (EBSCO) and Web of Science was conducted for studies published in English between January 2000 and January 2020.

The reporting of this review and narrative synthesis was guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic and meta-analysis guidelines (PRISMA) statement and data synthesis guided by the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guideline. The quality of each article was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.

Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Twenty-one used the mandated minimum nurse-to-patient ratio methodology and one study assessed the number of nurse hours per patient day staffing methodology. Both methodologies were mandated. All studies that reported on nurse outcomes demonstrated an improvement associated with the implementation of mandated minimum nurse-to-patient ratio, but findings related to patient outcomes were inconclusive.

Evidence on the impact of specific nurse staffing methodologies and patient and nurse outcomes remains highly limited. Future studies that examine the impact of specific staffing methodologies on outcomes are required to inform this fundamental area of management and practice.