Workforce and workload: Are nursing resources used effectively?

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Abstract
This paper describes key findings and implications from analyses of activity and workload of nurses of different grades and support workers based on data collected using Nursing Information Systems for Change Management (NISCM). 'Activity' refers to the amount of time on a shift spent on different tasks, and 'workload' refers to the number of patients in a variety of wards by demand/dependency group. The activity evidence is based on data from 5,208 staff recording their activity in 535 shift blocks in 19 hospitals and the workload evidence is based on data from 38,585 shifts across 90 wards in 17 hospitals. Four of the seven main findings have been selected for presentation here: variations, division of labour, skill-mix issues and flexibility. The findings show that there appears to be substantial systematic variation between hospitals in the grade mix of nursing staff and that there is little difference in the types of task undertaken by different grades of staff. As overall staffing increases, there is little increased specialization between staff groups and little flexibility in the deployment of nursing staff according to patient demand. The overall aim of the paper is to promote discussion relating to the development of appropriate and relevant strategies for changing skill-mixes in hospitals.