일반병동 간호인력 확보수준과 간호업무성과 분석

An Analysis of Nurse Staffing Level and Nursing Performance in the General Unit

Purpose: To examine the relationship between nurse staffing level and nurse perception of nursing performance. Method: The subjects of this study were 724 nurses from 70 medical or surgical wards in 23 hospitals from February to March 2006. A self-reporting questionnaire, which was developed by the researcher through a preceding study, was used. In data analysis, SAS program was utilized for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Tukey test. Results: The mean score of the nursing performance was 53.3. The mean of bed-to nurse ratio was 3.39:1. The study revealed a negative correlation between bed-to nurse ratio and the nurses' perception of nursing performance. There was a significant relationship between above 3.5:1 and below 2.5:1(F=4.59, p=0.010). Conclusion: We found that the higher the nurse staffing, the better the nursing performance. It is recommended that future research measures nurses' performance and nursing organizational performance using objective measurement tools including clinical indicators.