For me the simplest and possibly most important thing learned was staffing and scheduling are not the same. The two words are often use interchangeably, however have two very different meanings. The American Nurses Association (ANA’s) defines appropriate staffing as “a match of registered nurse expertise with the needs of the recipient of nursing care services in the context of the practice setting and situation. The provision of appropriate nurse staffing is necessary to reach safe, quality outcomes; it is achieved by dynamic, multifaceted decision making processes that must take into account a wide range of variables” (2014). Scheduling is the review of numbers and volume of patient’s projected based on census to determine the appropriated number of staff needed for an upcoming
For me the simplest and possibly most important thing learned was staffing and scheduling are not the same. The two words are often use interchangeably, however have two very different meanings. The American Nurses Association (ANA’s) defines appropriate staffing as “a match of registered nurse expertise with the needs of the recipient of nursing care services in the context of the practice setting and situation. The provision of appropriate nurse staffing is necessary to reach safe, quality outcomes; it is achieved by dynamic, multifaceted decision making processes that must take into account a wide range of variables” (2014). Scheduling is the review of numbers and volume of patient’s projected based on census to determine the appropriated number of staff needed for an upcoming