Spain's has 12.7 nurses per patient which is the highest among nine countries looked at in the study just published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.
Researchers investigated the link between cuts to staffing numbers, nursing education levels and the mortality rate for people over 50 after several types of surgery.
The study found inpatients were 7 percent more likely to die for every extra patient a nurse had to take on. That's good news for Norway where each nurse takes care of 5.2 patients, or Ireland where that number is 6.9.
It should also sound warning bells in Spain where annual health funding was trimmed by 0.5 percent from 2009 to 2011 after years of increases.
But the Lancet study, which tracked over 400,000 patients in 2009–10, also shows patients have a better chance of survival if nurses have a local undergraduate university degree.
With every ten percent increase in the number of nurses with a bachelor degree, the post-surgery mortality rate actually drops 7 percent, the researcher found.
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