Walter Sermeus

TL;DR: Differences in patient to nurse ratios and nurses' educational qualifications in nine of the 12 RN4CAST countries with similar patient discharge data were associated with variation in hospital mortality after common surgical procedures, implying an increased emphasis on bachelor's education for nurses could reduce preventable hospital deaths.

TL;DR: In European hospitals, improvement of hospital work environments might be a relatively low cost strategy to improve safety and quality in hospital care and to increase patient satisfaction.

TL;DR: There was wide variation across countries in the percentages of hospital nurses that were bachelor's prepared, in patient to nurse average workloads, and skill mix, and dissatisfaction was pronounced with respect to wages, educational opportunities and opportunities for advancement.

TL;DR: It can be concluded that patient empowerment is a much broader concept than just patient participation and patient-centeredness and may provide a useful framework that researchers, policy makers and health care providers can use to facilitate patient empowerment.

TL;DR: A bedside care workforce with a greater proportion of professional nurses is associated with better outcomes for patients and nurses, and reducing nursing skill mix by adding nursing associates and other categories of assistive nursing personnel without professional nurse qualifications may contribute to preventable deaths, erode quality and safety of hospital care and contribute to hospital nurse shortages.