Nursing Resources Linked to Postsurgical Outcomes for Patients With Opioid Use Disorder: An Observational Study

To determine whether better nursing resources (ie, nurse education, staffing, work environment) are each associated with improved postsurgical outcomes for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Hospitalized patients with OUD are at increased risk of adverse outcomes. Evidence suggests that adverse postsurgical outcomes may be mitigated in hospitals with better nursing resources, but this has not been evaluated among surgical patients with OUD.

Cross-sectional (2015-2016) data were utilized from the RN4CAST-US survey of hospital nurses, the American Hospital Association Annual Survey of hospitals, and state patient hospital discharge summaries. Multivariate logistic and zero-truncated negative binomial regression models were employed to examine the association between nursing resources and 30-day readmission, 30-day in-hospital mortality, and length of stay for surgical patients with OUD.

Of 919,601 surgical patients in 448 hospitals, 11,610 had identifiable OUD. Patients with compared to without OUD were younger and more often insured by Medicaid. Better nurse education, staffing, and work environment were each associated with better outcomes for all surgical patients. For patients with OUD, each 10% increase in the proportion of nurses with a bachelor's degree in nursing was associated with even lower odds of 30-day readmission (odds ratio [OR] = 0.88; P = 0.001), and each additional patient-per-nurse was associated with even lower odds of 30-day readmission (OR = 1.09; P = 0.024).

All surgical patients fare better when cared for in hospitals with better nursing resources. The benefits of having more nurses with a bachelor's degree and fewer patients-per-nurse in hospitals appear greater for surgical patients with OUD.