title: Staffing levels.
abstract: The Safer Nursing Care Tool (SNCT), which was originally developed in 2007 to help managers set appropriate nurse-staffing levels, has been extensively reviewed and recently endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The SNCT focuses on setting establishments and determining safe and appropriate nurse-staffing levels based on patients' sickness and dependency. It is the only tool of its kind available free to healthcare providers. It is updated regularly to reflect the changing needs of patients, and further developments are in progress to support NICE advice on how to determine nursing requirements on a shift-by-shift basis at ward level. Go to tinyurl.com/mqw2zpt to access the tool and tinyurl.com/pf63h7h to read the NICE endorsement.