Scenario – Staffing is an important part of nursing management as healthcare is very labor intensive. Since nursing is a major expense in any institution it is oftentimes the area where administrators will try to save money, sometimes forsaking quality and increasing the chances that there will be disgruntled nurses after a short time. The following scenarios are for two units in the same hospital so acuity levels will be the same. Acuity levels are as follows: #1=4.0; #2=3.2; #3=2.3; #4=1.4. The first unit is the ICU. The second is a Med-Surg floor. By utilizing 12-hour shifts consider what staffing should look like for each unit.
ICU Unit