Hospitals That rely on Travel Nurses and Overtime Compromise Patient Safety

A new study suggests that when hospitals rely excessively on nurses who are either travel nurses or working overtime, a key patient safety indicator may suffer.Research has demonstrated that nurse staffing is an important determinant of quality provided by hospitals. At the same time, few studies have looked at the differential effects of using nursing agencies, and/or requesting, and in some cases, mandating, overtime hours for regular nurse staff.The new study by researchers at the George Washington University and Premier, Inc. is one of the first to look at how the increased use of agency nurses and of overtime hours can affect patient safety.