Despite the lack of consistent evidence, many nursing administrators want nurses prepared at the baccalaureate (BS) level. Chief nursing officers (CNOs) in academic health centers preferred hiring more RNs with BS degrees; they had an average of 51% BSprepared nurses and desired 71%. Nurse managers in New York also preferred hiring more BS-prepared RNs, whereas fewer than 50% of their current RNs had BS degrees. Although baccalaureate-prepared RNs are desired, there are few incentives for nurses to complete a BS in terms of salary differential or prestige
in nursing. There is a need for further studies of RN education examining nursing-sensitive patient outcomes while controlling for other factors known to affect outcomes, such as nurse staffing and hospital and patient characteristics. This project examined the relationships of RN education with nurse-sensitive outcomes while simultaneously considering other hospital characteristics and nurse staffing levels. The hypothesis was that controlling for hospital characteristics (eg,Medicare case mix index, technology, safetynet status, patient risk factors, and nurse staffing), hospitals with higher proportions of RNs with baccalaureate degrees (BS) will have better patient outcomes. The hypothesis was tested once with nurse staffing on general adult units and once with staffing on adult intensive care units (ICUs).