Importance of Using a Staffing Matrix in Health Care Setting
Assessment Description
The purpose of this assignment is to prepare students to make staffing decisions based on sound financial management principles and compliance guidelines.
Scenario: You are the nurse leader of a 30-bed medical surgical unit and have to account for all staffing, including any discrepancies. Using sound financial management principles, complete the "NUR-621 Topic 8: Staffing Matrix" in the provided excel template.
After completing the matrix, compose an 1,000-1,250-word reflection answering the following questions:
Why is it important to use a staffing matrix in your health care setting?
Briefly describe your staffing matrix. How many FTEs (full-time equivalent) on the staffing roster are required to cover daily needs? What units of services or work measurement did you use and why? What financial management principles did you use to determine your staffing matrix?
Explain how you adjusted your staffing based on changes in the patient census.
You receive your financial report for the month. You have used more FTEs than what was budgeted for your census. How will you make up the variance? How would you reallocate resources to make up for the variance and still comply with guidelines?
Include two to four peer-reviewed references in your essay, including the textbook.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
MSN Leadership in Health Care Systems
6.4: Apply sound financial management principles to allocate resources within health care organizations.
Benchmark – Staffing Matrix and Reflection
Name
Institution
Due Date
Benchmark – Staffing Matrix and Reflection
Introduction
The need for healthcare professionals is unquestionable. Their importance is apparent in helping ensure and maintain great health for the public. However, suppose the staffing unit is not prepared well enough or aligned to meet the needs of the patients. In that case, the chances are high that even with the best healthcare professionals, a healthcare organization will fall short in care provision. Therefore, there is a need to find a metric that will help ensure that a healthcare organization optimally uses its resources, especially the present professionals. This brings about the use of a staffing matrix, which can help ensure that the healthcare professionals are utilized optimally, and the safety and care quality provided are enhanced.
Why is it important to use a staffing matrix in your health care setting?
The need for a staffing matrix is for both the staff members and the patients. As a nurse leader or any leader in an organization, one must ensure that they pay close attention to the needs of their patients. However, this should not happen at the expense of one’s staff members. The needs of the staff members must also be considered if at all a healthcare organization is to meet its safety and quality goals. As indicated by Griffiths et al. (2020), healthcare organizations must ensure that they match their staff with the needs of their patients for greater outcomes. However, this can only be done if there is a staffing matrix that considers the skills of the professionals available and aptly fits them within the healthcare organization’s program. The eventual effect is that the patient outcomes are enhanced.
Aside from enhancing patient outcomes, a staffing matrix helps to enhance healthcare workers’ satisfaction levels. A staffing matrix that does not factor in the needs of the staff members is likely to overwork them and leave many overwhelmed. An overwhelmed workforce is likely to be fatigued, commit more errors, and be greatly spent. In their study, Griffiths et al. (2016) note that lower staffing levels are directly related to increased mortality rates. Without a staffing matrix, it is highly likely that a healthcare organization will not be wary of its low staffing numbers. A staffing matrix helps to reveal the need for more staff members, and in the end, helps in the development of a staffing unit that fits or meets the needs of the organization. Furthermore, it also leaves the staff members satisfied with their work because they are working at their level best.
Briefly describe your staffing matrix. How many FTEs (full-time equivalent) on the staffing roster are required to cover daily needs? What units of services or work measurement did you use and why? What financial management principles did you use to determine your staffing matrix? Explain how you adjusted your staffing based on changes in the patient census.
The staffing matrix is made up of 12-hour shifts, and each of the professionals will be expected to work the designed shifts. The number of healthcare professionals present at any time of day or night is determined by the number of patients admitted. If the census is 30, there will be a higher number of registered nurses, nursing assistants, and health unit coordinators. However, each of these reduces as the census also reduces. The HPPD used for the matrix is 9, which simply represents the average number of hours every patient needs. Determining this number helps to determine the number of FTEs in the staffing roster. The goal of all the above is to ensure that adequate care is provided for every patient in the 30-bed medical-surgical unit. It should be noted that the skill mix for the outlined scenario was 60% for registered nurses, 30% for nursing assistants, and 10% for health unit coordinators. Furthermore, the difference between day and night shift staffing is that the allocation will be 60% for the day and for the night 40%. This was assigned in consideration of the fact that day shifts are busier and, as indicated by Govasli and Solvoll (2020), characterized by a hectic pace in task execution.
Aside from the budgeted HPPD of 9, the work measurement appears to be changing every day with a consistent decrease of 1. Therefore, the calculation for productive hours was done for every single day. From the calculations done, the nursing leader would need 22.5 12-hour shifts in the first 24-hour period. This number decreases with the decreasing number of patients. This was done to avoid...