Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36768081›Full record

Observational studyInternational journal of environmental research and public health2023

The Association between Nursing Skill Mix and Patient Outcomes in a Mental Health Setting: An Observational Feasibility Study.

Nompilo Moyo, Martin Jones, Shaun Dennis, Karan Sharma, Michael McKeown, Richard Gray

Abstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Abolition of coercion in psychiatry on the horizon? A descriptive ecologic data study from six European countries.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Nompilo MoyoSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-7287-8996
Martin JonesSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-6463-3574
Shaun DennisWhyalla Integrated Mental Health Service, Flinders & Upper North Local Health Network, Whyalla, SA 5600, Australia.
Karan SharmaAustin Health, Melbourne, VIC 3084, Australia.
Michael McKeownWhyalla Integrated Mental Health Service, Flinders & Upper North Local Health Network, Whyalla, SA 5600, Australia.
Richard GraySchool of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-9694-4206

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Higher levels of educational preparation for nurses are associated with lower mortality rates in both medical and surgical wards. In mental health inpatient wards, few studies have examined whether specialist mental health nurse training has any impact on patient outcomes. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to establish the feasibility of extracting and linking nurse education and inpatient outcome data from hospital administrative sources to inform the design of future mental health nursing skill mix studies. Study participants were people experiencing mental ill-health and admitted to psychiatric inpatient care for at least 24 h. The exposure was the ratio of mental health nurses to comprehensive nurses for each patient for each day of their admission. The outcome was readmission for psychiatric inpatient care within 12 months of discharge from the index admission. Confounders were patient demographic (age, gender) and clinical characteristics (diagnosis, legal status, community follow-up). Forty-four patients included in the study were inpatients for a total of 595 days. The median hospital stay was 12 days (IQR = 7-17). In total, 11 (25%) patients were readmitted. In the readmitted and not readmitted groups, the median skill mix ratio was 5 (IQR = 5-7) and 5 (1-6), respectively. It was feasible to extract and code patient and nurse data from hospital databases and link them together. However, a substantial amount of manual post hoc recoding was required to enable us to calculate the exposure (mental health to comprehensive nurse ratio) in a precise way. It may be realistic to automate our methodology in an appropriately powered mental health nursing skill mix study. Australian and New Zealand clinical trial registry: ACTRN12619001337167p.

Indexed as

Mental HealthNursing Staff, HospitalAustraliaFeasibility StudiesHospitalizationHumansPersonnel Staffing and Schedulinginpatientmental health nursenurse skill mixreadmission

Identifiers

PMID36768081
PMCPMC9915260

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.