Thesis
Assessing the association between nursing staffing and nursing home resident quality measures in rural Washington
Washington State University
Master of Health Policy and Administration (MHPA), Washington State University
2009
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101703
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this retrospective study is to assess the association between nurse staffing (RN, LPN, LVN, and CNA) hours per resident per day in rural Washington nursing homes and certain nursing home resident quality measures available at the Department of Health and Human Services website, Nursing Home Compare database. Methods: The Pearson's correlation is used to determine the relationship between each quality measure and nurse staffing (RN, LPN, and LVN or CNA) hours per resident per day for all nursing homes located within rural counties in Washington State. The independent samples ttest is used to compare the differences in mean scores of each quality measure and different levels of nursing staffing. Results: The Pearson's correlation tests reveal no linear relationships between RN, LPN, LVN, and CNA staffing hours and nursing home quality measures. The results of the t-tests also indicate no statistically significant differences between the means scores of quality measures and different levels of nursing staffing. Conclusion: Although the results of the statistical tests performed in this research did not support the main study hypothesis, the potential association between nursing staffing hours and nursing home quality measures cannot be ruled out because of the established empirical evidence supporting it. Further replication research is needed in other rural counties of the United States to validate the study hypothesis. This preliminary research is informative because it documents that most nursing homes in rural Washington are allocating more than the minimum licensed (RN, LVN, and LPN) nursing hours, but not certified nursing assistant hours per resident per day. Maintaining these levels of licensed nursing hours is found beneficial for improving quality measures by other researchers.
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Details
- Title
- Assessing the association between nursing staffing and nursing home resident quality measures in rural Washington
- Creators
- James R. Hessing
- Contributors
- Fevzi Akinci (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Health Policy and Administration, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Health Policy and Administration (MHPA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525040801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis