Table 3.

Odds ratios indicating the unadjusted and adjusted effects of nurse staffing, work environment, and education on patient mortality.

	Odds ratios for patient mortality
	Unadjusted		Fully adjusted
	OR (95% CI)	p	OR (95% CI)	p
Nurse staffing (patients per nurse)	1.12 (1.02−1.22)	0.02	1.05 (1.00−1.10)	0.05
Nurse work environment (better vs. mixed or poor)	0.47 (0.27−0.83)	0.01	0.52 (0.31−0.88)	0.01
Nurse education (% BSN)	0.91 (0.83–1.01)	0.07	0.91 (0.83−0.99)	0.03

Notes: OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval; and BSN = Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Unadjusted models are bivariate models which separately estimate the effect of each nursing characteristic, without any controls. Fully adjusted models estimate all three nursing characteristics individually while controlling for the full set of patient characteristics used in risk adjustment, as well as hospital characteristics. The adjusted characteristics for patient were age, gender, transfer status, type of admission, major diagnostic category, and the Elixhauser comorbidities (see Table 2). The adjusted characteristics for hospital included location and number of beds.