Do BSNs Save Lives?

In these tough situations, says a new study in Health Affairs, having a better-educated nursing staff makes a real difference. The authors examined data for more than 11,000 patients at 36 hospitals in four states (including California) and found that having more BSN-prepared nurses significantly improved patient outcomes.

A 10-percentage-point increase in a hospital’s number of BSN-prepared nurses improved arrest patients’ odds of surviving to discharge without cerebral impairment by 24 percent. Lead author Jordan Harrison, RN, Ph.D., attributes the difference to the better-educated nurses’ ability “to recognize patient deterioration before cardiac arrest, along with effective response once an arrest has happened.”

Patient Load

However, even with a well-educated nursing staff, cardiac arrest patients’ chances of surviving to discharge (with or without impairment) remained poor — overall survival rate was only 18.3 percent — and having more BSN-prepared nurses didn’t significantly change that.

What did improve patients’ chances was better staffing. Reducing the average nurse-to-patient ratio by one patient per nurse translated into a 16 percent improvement in arrest patients’ odds of surviving to discharge.

In this Article: Nursing Education, Public Health