Background: The current healthcare systems keep changing and dynamic and requires nurses to manage various complex patient care needs and ensure patient safety and quality of care. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing and various nursing associations call for a minimum bachelor’s degree to become nurses to produce quality patient outcomes. Purpose: This literature review aimed to identify and synthesize the existing evidence of the impact of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)-prepared nurses on hospitalized patients' outcomes. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to find full-text articles published between 2014 and 2019 in English. The screening focused on empirical studies that used the sample of BSN-prepared nurses as an independent variable and examined the relationships between BSN-prepared nurses and patient outcomes. Nine articles met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Results: Evidence revealed a higher proportion of BSN-prepared nurses in hospitals showed a significant effect on lower patient mortality rate, lower patient length of stay, lower readmission, lower failure to rescue, and greater odds of cardiac arrest survival. Conclusion: This literature review found evidence that a higher proportion of BSN-prepared nurses resulted in better patient outcomes in the hospital setting. However, more research is needed to examine the impact of BSN-prepared nurses on other patient outcomes extensively. Hospital administrators and nurse leaders are encouraged to support resources for the more BSN-prepared nurse workforce.
Keywords: Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate, Hospital, Quality of Health Care
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Cho, E., Sloane, D. M., Kim, E. Y., Kim, S., Choi, M., Yoo, I. Y., Lee, H. S., & Aiken, L. H. (2015). Effects of nurse staffing, work environments, and education on patient mortality: an observational study. International journal of nursing studies, 52(2), 535–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2014.08.006.
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Harrison, J. M., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., Brooks Carthon, J. M., Merchant, R. M., Berg, R. A., McHugh, M. D., & American Heart Association’s Get with the Guidelines–Resuscitation Investigators. (2019). In hospitals with more nurses who have baccalaureate degrees, better outcomes for patients after cardiac arrest. Health affairs (Project Hope), 38(7), 1087–1094. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05064
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