title: It's the skill mix not the numbers.
abstract: In the February issue of Nursing Management, chief nurse at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, Eileen Sills is reported as expressing fears that having staffing levels posted at ward entrances heightens patients' anxiety. Her concerns raise a number of issues. Anxiety about displaying nurse-to-patient ratios (NPRs) on the ward reminds me of similar discussions in the past about whether patients and their relatives should be told if they had cancer. Sometimes relatives were told, but not the patients, because 'they would not be able to cope'.
authors.affiliation: Anglia Ruskin University.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hunt
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000600:supply & distribution; D061214:Patient Safety; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom