Hospital use of nursing personnel - Holding steady through the 1990s

In a March 1998 Journal of Nursing Administration article, I reported that nurse staffing did not in fact decline through 1996 in California where con cerns about nurse staffing have been prominent. In this article, I provide a data update indicating an increase in the number of hours worked by nursi ng personnel in California hospitals through 1998, mostly because of an inc rease in the number of hours worked by registered nurses. The hours worked by nursing personnel and registered nurses per case-mix adjusted discharge and per adjusted patient day have remained stable since 1996 Thus, the most recent data indicate no decline in nurse staffing in the 1990s.