Nurse, patient survey shows patient safety in hospitals still a concern

Editor's Note

Survey data from thousands of nurses and patients shows that patient safety remains a serious concern and that failure to improve hospital work environments may be hampering progress, finds this study by Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Of 53,644 nurses and 805,881 patients in 535 hospitals in four large states analyzed between 2005 and 2016, only 21% of hospitals substantially improved their clinical work environments, 71% made no improvements, and 7% had worse work environments.

In hospitals that improved their work environments, patient and nurse appraisals of patient safety increased by 11% to 15%. When work environments deteriorated, favorable grades on patient safety fell by 19%. Grades on patient safety remained the same for work environments that remained the same.

The findings show that nurses continue to face challenging but modifiable work environments that interfere with their ability to implement patient safety interventions, the authors conclude.