Question

Describe how different types of personnel affect nurse workload and staffing decisions; licensed and unlicensed nursing personnel. Do you have any real life experiences related to this objective? If so, explain. If you don’t have any personal experience, what specifically about the objective might provide particular challenges to you in your role as a new healthcare HRM?

Answer 1

NURSING WORKLOAD: Is the nursing care needs of clients. It is a measurement of the nursing work activities and the dependence of clients on nursing care. The basis of nursing workload measurement is TIME.

STAFFING: It is the process of determining and assigning the right personnel with the right qualifications to the job in a right time to accomplish the purposes of the organization.

PURPOSE OF STAFFING:

a) Appropriate numbers and mix of nursing staff

b) Delivery of effective nd efficient nursing care

c) Increase productivity

d) Avoid role confusion, communication problems and time waste

e) Maintain stability in team work.

The main aim of a nurse is to give a quality care those who are ill like what Florence Nightingale did to the wounded soldiers. But, today due to various reasons the quality of care is facing a drastic decrease because of the hectic workload. This is a common factor in all the hospitals worldwide. There are 4 reasons on why nurses are experiencing heavy workloads. They are: a) increased demand for nurses b) inadequate supply for nurses c) reduced staffing and increased overtime and d) reduction in patient length of stay. When a nursing shortage occurs, the workload increases for the other nurses those who remain in the job and also due to increase in healthcare costs, working overtime like policies has been made to meet unexpectedly high demands of work. These all situations give raise to workloads among nurses.

I really do have a real time experience when I was working in an ICU ( Cardiothoracic). Quality care always matters because of increased paper works, shortage of staffs and also due to overtime burden. We were not allowed to sit down during their night shifts and many nurses quit their jobs because of certain issues.

STAFFING PROCESS:

a) Identify the type and amount of nursing care to be given

b) Determining which categories of nursing personnel should be used to deliver needed care

c) Predicting the number of each category of personnel that will be needed to deliver care

d) Selecting and appointing personnel from those who are applied.

e) Only recruit personnel to fill the available positions

f) Performance appraisal for various staff categories

g) Continues staff development.

So inorder to improve effective and efficient quality care, certain policies should be made inorder to reduce the burden on nurses what we called as workload. They are: a) adequate amount of staffing b) reduce the amount of paper works c) transfer staff from a less busy area to the overloaded area d) reduction in overtime duties e) appointment of part time staff to reduce the overtime and to reduce the work overload f) Mandatory overtime requiring staff should be allowed to stay on duty after their scheduled shift ends because using a tired nurse is better than no nurse at all.