How many nurses do we need? A review and discussion of operational research techniques applied to nurse staffing

摘要

Despite a long history of health services research that indicates that having sufficient nursing staff on hospital wards is critical for patient safety, and sustained interest in nurse staffing methods, there is a lack of agreement on how to determine safe staffing levels. For an alternative viewpoint, we look to a separate body of literature that makes use of operational research techniques for planning nurse staffing. Our goal is to provide examples of the use of operational research approaches applied to nurse staffing, and to discuss what they might add to traditional methods.