Nursing Shortage in the Hospital Sector, 1982-87. Support Studies and Background Information, Volume 2

摘要

The report summarizes the extent of registered nurse (RN) shortages in the short-term general hospital sector for the period 1982-1987. The findings are based on data collected by the Hospital Studies Program of the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment and use three measures of nursing shortage: (1) budgeted RN vacancy rate; (2) ratio of RNs per 100 patient days; and (3) the level of shortage as perceived by hospital and nursing administrators. These measures are used to examine several hospital characteristics for their association with the RN shortage: location and hospital structure; nursing salaries and staff mix; and casemix and financial aspects such as hospital profitability and costs per admission.