Research into nurse staffing levels in Wales

It also includes analysis of findings related to developing a better understanding of the availability and accessibility of nurse staffing data in medical and surgical wards in Wales.

The review of evidence on safe nurse staffing levels includes, for example, nurse-to-patient ratios and skill mix, the role played by nurse staffing levels in influencing patient safety, unintended consequences of mandatory nurse staffing levels and the use of staffing level tools.

Availability and accessibility of relevant data focuses on the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), public availability of Welsh NHS staff data, data quality in the ESR database system and possible other sources of data. In addition, a data acquisition exercise with Local Health Boards is outlined, setting out methods, data quality, findings from an initial analysis of the data returned and lessons for future practice.