Table 3. Proportion of nurse-reported unmet nursing care and adverse events across hospitals (n = 168).

Variable	Mean (SD)	Range	Nurses (%) n = 10,184
Unmet nursing care
Develop or update nursing care plans	41.0 (13.0)	8.0–74.0
Comfort/talk with patients	40.0 (10.0)	7.0–69.0
Back rubs and skin care	30.0 (13.0)	0.0–69.0
Teach patients or family	29.0 (11.0)	0.0–67.0
Adequately document nursing care	22.0 (9.0)	0.0–42.0
Oral hygiene	20.0 (10.0)	0.0–66.0
Prepare patients and families for discharge	12.0 (6.0)	0.0–26.0
Unmet nursing care needs composite*	1.9 (0.5)	0.2–3.5
Adverse events
Patient received wrong medication or dose†	15.0 (8.0)	0.0–64.0
Never			3815 (38.1)
Rarely			4714 (47.1)
Occasionally			1390 (13.9)
Frequently			92 (0.9)
Nosocomial infections†	31.0 (12.0)	0.0–59.0
Never			2439 (24.7)
Rarely			4053 (41.0)
Occasionally			2766 (28.0)
Frequently			617 (6.3)
Patient falls with injury†	20.0 (10.0)	0.0–55.0
Never			4602 (46.0)
Rarely			3467 (34.7)
Occasionally			1679 (16.8)
Frequently			252 (2.5)

The distribution of each unmet care needs is based on the proportion of nurses reporting leaving the care need(s) undone.

^*The unmet nursing care needs composite was derived from the aggregate average sum of unmet nursing care needs.

^†Proportion of nurses who reported occasionally or frequently about medication errors, nosocomial infections and patient falls. Nurses may not add to n = 10,184 because of missing data.