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Mental health
Mental health nurses’ attribute compromised inpatient care quality chiefly to understaffing
  1. Geoffrey L Dickens
  1. Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Geoffrey L Dickens, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, UK; geoffrey.dickens{at}northumbria.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2023-103844

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    Commentary on: Thompson E, Senek M, Ryan T. Analysis of a nursing survey: Reasons for compromised quality of care in inpatient mental health wards. Int J Ment Health Nurs. 2024 Feb;33(1):52-61. doi: 10.1111/inm.13216. Epub 2023 Aug 31.

    Implications for practice and research

    • Some mental health nurses believe that suboptimal nursing care is being provided in inpatient settings due to understaffing. This contradicts the best available current evidence and should not be a major policy determinant.

    • There is a significant research gap in relation to nurse staffing and diverse indicators of care quality in mental health.

    Context

    Research literature from non-mental health settings suggests that improved safety, mortality and length of stay outcomes are associated with higher staffing levels.1 2 In mental health settings, the best evidence has reliably linked higher staffing levels with subsequent increases in patient aggression.3 …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.