title: Developing indicators of nursing quality to evaluate nurse staffing ratios.
abstract: Concerns about the adequacy of patient care and safety in the state of California led to legislation that required the implementation of mandatory nurse staffing ratios. The authors describe a novel approach for identifying indicators that could be used to evaluate the impact of these regulations on quality of care and patient outcomes. The results of this project demonstrate that this is a useful method for identifying indicators appropriate for use in outcomes research with a focus on structural predictors of quality in healthcare.
authors.affiliation: University of California Davis Medical Center, Center for Nursing Research, Sacramento, Calif 95817, USA. peggy.hodge@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Margaret Blakeman
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Hodge
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Asch
authors.forename: Valerie A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Kravitz
authors.forename: Mary Jane
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sauvé
mesh_terms: D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards* / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results