The last 13 years has witnessed an increased frequency of premature death in aged care facilities. Research by Monash University Professor Joseph Ibrahim, revealed that the causes that are potentially preventable are which are falls, choking and suicide.

Following are the key points of the research:

• There were 21 672 deaths of nursing home residents between 1 July 2000 and 30 June 2013 and 3,289 (15.2%) resulted from external causes.
• The most frequent causes of death were falls (2,679 cases, 81.5%), choking (261 cases, 7.9%) and suicide (146 cases, 4.4%).
• The incidents leading to death usually occurred in the nursing home (95.8%), but the deaths more frequently occurred outside the nursing home (67.1%).
• The annual number of external cause deaths was 1.2 per 1000 admissions in 2001–02, and increase to 5.3 per 1000 admissions in 2011–12.

According to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) this level of preventable deaths would cause a public outcry “if” occurring in hospitals. They say that the deaths of these older people who we “lock away” and “forget about” need attention and that we owe these older people a better place to live because “they’ve given us one of the best countries in the world to live in.”

The ANMF sees the research as confirmation of the findings of previous studies which demonstrated the devastating effects of chronic understaffing in the residential aged care sector.

ANMF Acting Federal Secretary, Annie Butler, said there just simply aren’t enough nurses or carers to ensure that every resident receives quality care. The shortfall of staff in the sector means that aged care residents are frequently missing out on essential care and treatment.

Looking further afield with respect to patient mortality, research in adult acute care hospitals in Belgium, England, Finland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland found that it’s nursing skill mix that is important.

In the European and UK hospital settings, the research found that a nursing skill mix in hospitals with a higher proportion of professional nurses is associated with significantly lower mortality, higher patient ratings of their care and fewer adverse care outcomes.

Each 10% increase in the proportion of nursing personnel who are professional nurses is associated with an 11% decrease in the odds of patient deaths after general surgery. And each 10% reduction in the proportion of professional nurses is associated with a 12% increase in the odds of patient deaths.

More articles on My Health Career:

• Really? Can being connected with others and our purpose in life make us live longer?
• Kindness and compassion to avoid practitioner burnout and aid patient healing
• Mindful nurses perform better
• Robot revolution: why technology for older people must be designed with care and respect

Photo credit: simaje via VisualHunt / CC BY