California’s nurse-to-patient ratio law and occupational injury

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Int Arch Occup Environ Health
• Personal Author:
  Leigh, J. Paul ; Markis, Carrie A. ; Iosif, Ana-Maria ; Romano, Patrick S.
• Description:
  Objective
  
  To determine whether state-mandated minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in California hospitals had an effect on reported occupational injury and illness rates.
  
  Methods
  
  The difference-in-differences method was applied: the change in injury rates among hospital nurses after implementation of the law in California was compared to the change in 49 other states and the District of Columbia combined. Data were drawn from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the California Employment Development Department, including numerator estimates of injury and illness cases and denominator estimates of the number of registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) employed in hospitals. Confidence intervals (CIs) for rates were constructed based on assumptions that favored the null hypothesis.
  
  Results
  
  The most probable difference-in-differences estimate indicated that the California law was associated with 55.57 fewer occupational injuries and illnesses per 10,000 RNs per year, a value 31.6% lower than the expected rate without the law. The most probable reduction for LPNs was 33.6%. Analyses of confidence intervals suggested that these reductions were unlikely to be due to chance.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Despite significant data restrictions and corresponding methodological limitations, the evidence suggests that the law was effective in reducing occupational injury and illness rates for both RNs and LPNs. Whether these 31.6% and 33.6% reductions are maintained over time remains to be seen.
  
  
• Subjects:
  California Humans Legislation, Hospital Nursing Staff, Hospital Occupational Diseases Occupational Injuries Personnel Staffing And Scheduling Workload
• Keywords:
  Illness Job-related Legislation Ratios
• Source:
  Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 88(4):477-484
• Pubmed ID:
  25216822
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6597253
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U54 OH007550/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U54OH007550/ACL HHSUnited States/ ; U54OH007550-1/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  88
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:31223272f8b7484b04e06578afab137b95dbec3789f8a449989b4b17a73b38a1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/79499/cdc_79499_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 79.01 KB ]