ABSTRACT
If you are a patient or a family member of a patient entering a hospital today, the single most important factor determining the outcome of your care is the number of patients assigned to the nurse responsible for that care. Understaf‚ng of registered nurses (RNs) and excessive patient assignments have been directly linked through dozens of scienti‚c studies to a dramatic increase in the risk of medical errors, patient injuries, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), and thousands of patient deaths each and every year.
