title: Pediatric nurse staffing and quality of care in the hospital setting.
abstract: Indicators of quality and nurse staffing in pediatrics are distinct from adults. A retrospective, correlational, linear mixed model design was used to describe relationships between pediatric nurse staffing and 5 indicators of quality care from a convenience sample of 7 academic children's hospitals. Key findings supported a strong inverse relationship between the proportion of hours of pediatric nursing care delivered by registered nurses and the rate of occurrence of central line (P < .001) and bloodstream infections (P < .05). Supplemental nurse staffing hours also demonstrated relationships between bloodstream infections and parent/family complaints.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois Medical Center, College of Nursing at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. strattok@uic.edu
authors.forename: Karen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Stratton
mesh_terms: D002405:Catheterization, Central Venous / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000451:nursing; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000451:nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D018805:Sepsis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*