FREE 7+ Nursing Staffing Plan Samples in MS Word | Google Docs | Apple Pages | PDF

Hospitals and clinics are some of the busiest and one of the most important establishments there is since a lot of people come and go. Hospitals most especially are open 24 hours a day attending to patients and those coming in for an emergency. A busy environment such as hospitals would mean the nursing staff are bound to have different shifts and schedules. This is one of the many challenges hospital administrators are facing, how to deal with the inadequate number of nurses to meet the demand. This was fairly evident during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in which not only was there a shortage in doctors but in nursing staff as well. Effectively managing healthcare professionals requires an efficient nursing staffing plan to create a balance between the resources and the needs of the public. Read more about this in our article for today, and to get started with your staffing plan check out our free nursing staffing plan samples below.

7+ Nursing Staffing Plan Samples

1. Nursing Staffing Plan Template

2. Nursing Staffing Plan

3. Sample Nursing Staffing Plan

4. Nursing Master Staffing Plan

5. Nursing Emergency Staffing Plan

6. Standard Nursing Staffing Plan

7. Contract Nursing Staffing Plan

8. Nursing Operating Room Staffing Plan

What Is a Nursing Staffing Plan?

Hospitals are often busy with patients, surgeries, emergencies, and many others which is why they require a systematic approach in organizing their nurses’ schedules and shift around the hospital. A nursing staffing plan should help identify the number of nurses needed in the hospital, expected type and number of patients, and types of nurses and other employees required for regulatory compliance. This also takes into account any regulatory requirements, patient populations, environmental factors, and staff education. An effective nursing staffing plan has been shown to reduce patient mortality, enhance outcomes, and improve nurse satisfaction.

How To Develop a Nursing Staffing Plan?

A secure nurse staffing is essential to both the nursing profession and to the overall health care system. Staffing affects the ability of all nurses to deliver safe, quality care in all practice settings. By eliminating unsafe nurse staffing practices and policies, we can provide better health care for all. With this being said a lot of important factors have to be considered as you go about developing a nursing staffing plan. One of which is to take into account the three models by which nurse staffing is organized.

• Patient Acuity, which the level of healthcare provided is based on the patient’s needs.
• Budget-based, in which nursing staff is allocated according to nursing hours per patient day.
• Nursing-patient ratio is based on the number of patients in a designated unit, simply put it refers to the number of nurses per number of patients.

Based on these three models, in most cases, these are often combined with another and are often tailored on the overall staffing approach to their specific needs. Below are some pointers to take into account when developing a nurse staffing plan:

1. Assess The Hospital’s Nursing Needs

In order to assess the nursing needs of a healthcare facility, is to check for any issues. There are several ways to check if there are problems with the workforce around the hospital such as:

• Increase in errors in patient care and negative outcome and feedback amongst patients and other hospital staff members.
• If you’re doing the staffing shuffle regularly, either your schedule isn’t following the plan or the plan is no longer working.
• An increase in complaints may signal a serious problem with your staffing plans.
• Too much work and a decrease in workload may call for a re-evaluation of your staffing plans.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

Properly assign each nursing staff to their designated stations, making sure no work is overlapped and all staff is capable of their duties and responsibilities.

3. Nurse Staffing Models

Identify which of the 3 staffing models mentioned earlier best suit the organization. This is best utilized when combined.

4. Monitor and Evaluate

Always see to it that you are constantly monitoring the performance of your nursing staff. And should anything fall short or there are frequent problems and issues then you should re-evaluate your staffing plan and make all the necessary changes.

FAQs

Developing a nurse staffing plan should be a cooperative effort. Good data and strong analytical skills help ensure these plans are useful for nurse managers who must create daily schedules and accommodate patients.