Abstract
Background: Nurses obtaining higher levels of education has been recommended nationally for more than a decade to support improved patient outcomes.
Local Problem: Organizational strategies were implemented to achieve a highly educated workforce at the project site over 14 years. However, there was no evaluation of relationship with increasing education levels and pediatric patient outcomes.
Methods: A quality improvement project explored the relationship of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) or higher prepared nurses with 9 different nurse-sensitive indicators (NSIs). Educational preparation and NSI data were retrieved retrospectively from hospital databases from up to 14 years.
Results: Moderate to moderately strong correlations were noted between the proportion of BSN or higher prepared nurses and 2 NSIs (central line-associated bloodstream infections, r = -0.55 and surgical site infections, r = -0.71). Four of the 9 indicators were approaching moderate correlation.
Conclusions: Increasing the proportion of highly educated nurses at the project site correlated with improvements in select NSI outcomes.