The Nurse Staffing Problem: Issues and Prospects.

摘要

The problem of forecasting demand and allocation of manpower resources for the nursing staff of large hospitals is presented and discussed by Stanford University faculty members, and a conceptual basis for interrelating nurse staffing procedures is outlined. The nursing staff is often underutilized because of inadequate planning in both forecasting and allocation, insufficient flexibility in meeting the fluctuations of short-term demand, and lack of effective evaluation and control of staffing procedures. At present, staffing demand is usually evaluated on the basis of relatively long-range forecasts (up to 18 months) and thus is insensitive to short-range fluctuations. Nursing personnel are allocated on the basis of peak demand in the various departments or wards over the forecasting period, and there is little flexibility for meeting short-term demands.