Staff turnover and quality of care in nursing homes.
OBJECTIVE
In this work, the association between nurse aide (NA) plus licensed practical nurse (LPN) and registered nurse (RN) turnover and quality indicators in nursing homes is examined.


METHODS
Indicators of care quality used are the rates of physical restraint use, catheter use, contractures, pressure ulcers, psychoactive drug use, and certification survey quality of care deficiencies. In addition, we used a quality index combining these indicators. Turnover information came from primary data collected from 354 facilities in 4 states and other information came from the 2003 Online Survey, Certification and Reporting data. The turnover rates were grouped into 3 categories, low, medium, and high, defined as 0% to 20%, 21% to 50%, and greater than 50% turnover, respectively.


RESULTS
The average 1-year turnover rates identified in this study were high at 85.8% for NAs and LPNs and 55.4% for RNs. Multivariate analysis shows that decreases in quality are associated with increases in RN turnover, especially increases from low-to-moderate levels of turnover, and with increases in NA and LPN turnover, especially increases from moderate-to-high levels of turnover.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings are significant because the belief that staff turnover influences quality is pervasive. The cross-sectional results are only able to show associations, nonetheless, few empirical studies in the literature have shown this relationship.
Castle
Nicholas G
NG
Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, USA. CastleN@Pitt.edu
Engberg
John
J
D003237:Connecticut; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008923:Missouri; D009515:New Jersey; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000600:supply & distribution; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000592:standards*; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009743:Nursing, Practical; D010563:Personnel Turnover / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013781:Texas; D000078329:Workforce