Ponte PR, Conlin G, Conway JB, Grant S, Medeiros C, Nies J. Making patient-centered care come alive: Achieving full integration of the patient's perspective. Journal of Nursing Administration. 2003;33(2):82-90.

In this article, the authors describe how patients and families have been integrated into the care delivery model by involving them in planning, decision-making, and improvement processes at all levels of the organization.

Stanton MW, Rutherford MK. Hospital Nurse Staffing and Quality of Care. Rockville, Maryland: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; March 2004. Research in Action, Issue 14.

Hospitals with low nurse staffing levels tend to have higher rates of poor patient outcomes such as pneumonia, shock, cardiac arrest, and urinary tract infections, according to research funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and others.

McGillis Hall L, Doran D, Pink GH. Nurse staffing models, nursing hours and patient safety outcomes. Journal of Nursing Administration. 2004;34(1):41-45.

This article describes a study whose objective was to evaluate the effect of different nurse staffing models on costs and the patient outcomes of patient falls, medication errors, wound infections, and urinary tract infections.

McGillis Hall L. Nursing staff mix models and outcomes. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2003;4(2):217-226.

This article describes a study whose purpose was to determine the relationship between staff mix models — regulated staff only (Registered Nurses and Registered Practical Nurses), or regulated and unregulated staff (Registered Nurses and unregulated workers) — and nursing and quality outcomes.

Mark BA, Salyer J, Wan TT. Market, hospital and nursing unit characteristics as predictors of nursing unit skill mix. Journal of Nursing Administration. 2000;30(11):552-560.

This article describes a study whose objective was to examine the relative contributions of market, hospital, and nursing unit characteristics to the prediction of nursing unit skill mix.

Blegen MA, Vaughn TE, Goode CJ. Nurse experience and education. Journal of Nursing Administration. 2001;31(1):33-39.

This article documents a study which described the relationships between the quality of patient care and the education and experience of the nurses providing that care.

Sochalski J, Aiken LH, Fagin CM. Hospital restructuring in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe: An outcomes research agenda. Medical Care Supplement. 1997;35(10):OS13-25.

This article describes the extent and nature of hospital restructuring across the United States, Canada, and Western Europe — countries with very different health care systems — and assesses the feasibility of international research on the outcomes of hospital restructuring.

Aiken LH, Clarke SP, Sloane DM, et al. Nurses' reports on hospital care in five countries. Health Affairs. 2001;20(3):43-53.

This article describes reports from 43,000 nurses from more than 700 hospitals in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, and Germany in 1998-1999. The reports demonstrates that nurses in countries with distinctly different health care systems report similar problems in their work environments and the quality of hospital care.

Aiken LH, Clarke SP, Sloane, DM. Hospital staffing, organization, and quality of care: Cross-national findings. International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 2002;14(1):5-13.

This article describes a study which examined the effects of nurse staffing and organizational support for nursing care on nurses' dissatisfaction with their jobs, nurse burnout, and nurse reports of quality of patient care in an international sample of hospitals.

Aiken LH, Clarke SP, Cheung RB, Sloane DM, Silber JH. Educational levels of hospital nurses and surgical patient mortality. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2003;290(12):1617-1623.

This article describes a study which examined whether the proportion of hospital nurses educated at the baccalaureate level or higher was associated with risk-adjusted mortality and failure to rescue.