title: Analyzing staffing trade-offs on acute care hospital units.
abstract: Given today's resource-limited environment, nurse leaders must make judicious staffing decisions to deliver safe, cost-effective care. Investing in 1 element of staffing often requires scaling back in another. A national cross section of acute care hospital unit leaders was surveyed regarding staffing resources, including nurse workload, education, specialty certification, experience, and level of support staff. The authors report findings from the survey and discuss the trade-offs observed among units regarding nurse-to-patient ratios and the proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: Executive Director (Mr Berkow), Consultant (Ms Vonderhaar), Managing Director (Ms Stewart), Practice Manager (Dr Virkstis), Senior Consultant (Ms Terry), Nursing Executive Center, The Advisory Board Company, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Berkow
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vonderhaar
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Virkstis
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Terry
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D064648:Critical Care Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D063868:Patient Outcome Assessment; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data