Editorial: Nurses’ crucial role in patient recovery

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1998 | 11:37 a.m.

The research by a division of the Health and Human Services Department notes that more nursing care results in fewer complications after surgery. The researchers said an extra hour of nursing attention every day for each surgical patient reduced the risk a patient would get a urinary tract infection by almost 10 percent and lowered the risk of getting pneumonia by 8 percent. In addition, the odds of getting other lung-related maladies and blood clots also declined, although not as much.

While nurses play an integral role in patient recovery, they also account for one-quarter of the average hospital's work force and are its single largest labor cost, according to an Associated Press report. Unfortunately hospitals frequently have targeted nursing as an area to trim costs, sometimes seeking to hire less qualified people to perform the same tasks as nurses.

But the bottom line is that nursing is an area that shouldn't be cannibalized, allowing less professionalism. This government study documents the importance of nursing and what an important investment it is in boosting patient recovery.

Before hospital accountants embark on cost-cutting measures involving nurses, they should stop and imagine themselves as the patient, considering whether they would like less care after surgery. Maybe then they'd have second thoughts about reducing patient care.