Nursing Education and Patient Outcomes

Running head: NURSING EDUCATION AND PATIENT OUTCOMES
NURSING EDUCATION AND PATIENT OUTCOMES
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NURSING EDUCATION AND PATIENT OUTCOMES1
Introduction
Patient safety and quality of delivered healthcare services are associated closely with
educational background and skill sets prevalent within the nursing workforce (Harrison et al.,
2019). This following paper will briefly explore the link between nursing education and positive
patient safety outcomes by drawing from relevant evidence.
Discussion
A recent cross sectional study conducted by Aiken et al., (2017), examined the
relationship between the skill mix of the nursing workforce and rates of care quality, patient
mortality and patient care ratings by surveying administrative data of 243 hospitals across Spain,
Belgium, Switzerland, England and Ireland. The findings indicated that with a 10 fold rise in the
number of professional and certified nurses within the healthcare workforce, there were
reductions in the odds of poor service quality complaints (OR = 0.89), patient mortality (OR =
0.89), negative patient feedback (0.90), low health outcomes (0.93) and inadequate safety grades
(OR = 0.89). Such findings demonstrate a positive link between nurses’ educational level and
positive patient health outcomes as well as deliverance of care services which are of optimum
quality and credibility.
Such findings can be related to my personal nursing experiences as a student. During my
first simulation training experience, I remember making a number of mistakes related to
conducting the correct patient assessment. Such errors were almost non-existent during my final
semester practicum experience as a nursing student. Indeed, as compared to an Associated
Degree in Nursing (AND), a nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is likely to
possess greater skills in terms of critical thinking, analytical understanding of patient’s health