Published in The Lancet on 26 February 2014, the findings of the 3 years’ research study – RN4Cast, conducted across nine European countries (Belgium, England, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland), show that every extra patient added to a nurse’s workload increases a patient’s chance of dying within 30 days of admission for surgery by 7%. Furthermore, a 10% increase in the proportion of nurses holding a bachelor degree decreases that risk by 7%.
Designed to assess whether differences in patient to nurse ratios and nurses’ educational qualifications, were associated with changes in hospital mortality, the study clearly points out that increasing the number of graduate nurses is necessary to have lower patient mortality and fewer adverse patient outcomes. As such, these findings concretely prove that investing in an appropriate nursing workforce is a return in investment, as it reduces mortality and increases quality of care. Therefore, it is crucial that the national & EU key policy players promote an appropriately educated, supported and motivated nursing workforce in the right numbers to deliver safe person-centred care.
Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty, King’s College, London said, ‘Although the European Directive on Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications safeguards the profession of nursing from those wanting to lower the level of nursing education, our evidence demonstrates that governments need to upgrade nursing education in the EU to degree level’.
For many years now, the EFN has been lobbying to get EU workforce high on the EU political agenda, and now it is, especially with the revision of the mutual recognition of professional qualifications Directive (2013/55/EU). Now that the Directive came into force, it is essential to fully implement ART31 into national legislation and curricula, ensuring nurses have the right competencies to deliver effective nursing care.
Being at the frontline, and being the largest occupational group of the health professions, it is crucial to have an effective nursing workforce planning in Europe, based on skill needs, correct planning tools based on comparable data and transparency on appropriate staffing levels will enable policy-makers to plan and forecast the workforce effectively. Therefore, all the EU Member States should take a long term approach to workforce planning, with nursing being an integral and integrated element of future health workforce planning.
The EFN congratulates the RN4Cast Consortium for this high level research on which the EU and Europe can build further evidence-based policies.