Hospital Nurse Understaffing and Patient Mortality, Readmission, and Length of Stay.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Although higher nurse staffing has been linked to better patient outcomes, most studies rely on aggregate measures, leaving the effects of deviations from ward- and shift-level norms (daily and per shift) unclear. Clarifying these effects can inform ward-level staffing decisions.

Objective

To investigate the association between nurse understaffing, relative to typical ward staffing levels, during the 24-hour period, day shift, and evening and night shift and patient risk for in-hospital mortality, readmission, and longer length of stay (LOS).

Design, setting, and participants

This retrospective cohort study used claims data and shift-ward rosters from 82 wards in 9 hospitals in Japan. Included patients were aged 20 years or older and hospitalized between Ap

SUBMITTER: Morioka N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12936879 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature