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An aging population, emerging technology, heightening patient expectations, rising health care costs, shorter patient stays, and growing pressure to improve quality have made the management of nursing resources even more critical today.
While approaching a model for staffing levels, the authors considered factors such as patient acuity, work redesign, and minimum quality standards.
The methodology for analysis included estimating the time needed to complete nursing tasks and calculating the average number of tasks per patient.
With respect to nursing quality measures, the study examined the adequacy of nursing documentation including admission history, assessments, nursing procedures, and discharge report as well as nursing-driven outcomes such as fall and phlebitis rates.
No. Lastly, the authors determined the theoretical number of staff needed to provide nursing care according to quality standards.
ODAY, THE APPRECIATION Of
the important work of nurses in the sound running of hospital institutions, and in any health organization, is growing (Silva & Aderhodlt, 1989). At the same time, within the public budget devoted to health, the cost of staff is also a main concern. The successive cutbacks in staffing result in an increase in staff workload, especially in nursing services, where quality issues are also an important concern. This can lead to increased dissatisfaction of staff and to a notable increase in the risk of professional errors (Hendrickson, Doddato, & Kovner, 1990).
To design a model that permits the determination of the number of nurses required to cover minimum levels of quality, it is necessary to define several prior steps including (a) patients must be classified (not all patients require the same nursing care), so as to subsequently identify the different tasks that nurses carry out in their work; (b) discover a way of determining the time taken to carry out each nursing task, (c) identify the desired levels of quality in the hospital, (d) establish the relationships between the theoretical staff and quality levels, and (e) establish the procedure for calculating staff.
The purpose of this article is to present an efficient methodology for capacity planning in the case of hospital nursing, the ultimate aim being to determine the minimum staff needed to carry out all the functions corresponding to a nursing unit, bearing in mind the quality of...