Hospitals have increasingly relied on nurse assistants to support nurses in the provision of patient care, yet knowledge about their contributions to the patient experience in US hospitals is limited. Although registered nurses are more impactful, nurse assistants are the more underdeployed staffing category. Given their lower labor costs, further employment of nurse assistants may be warranted.

This article explores the impact of nurse assistants and registered nurses on an array of patient satisfaction measures from the Medicare Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.