The Relationship Between Registered Nurses and Nursing Home Quality: An Integrative Review (2008-2014).

Nursing home care is expensive; second only to acute hospital care for inpatient Medicare costs. The increased focus on costs of care accrued by Medicare beneficiaries in nursing homes presents a valuable opportunity for registered nurses (RNs) to further demonstrate quantitatively the value they add to the capacity of the nursing home nursing skill mix to provide cost-effective and efficient quality care. Most of the studies included in this review consistently reported that higher RN staffing and higher ratios of RNs in the nursing skill mix are related to better NH quality.