Nursing Staffing Plan and Skill Mix for Heart Failure Clinic

This report provides a detailed nursing staffing plan and skill mix analysis for a heart failure clinic. It outlines the roles and skills required for various clinical and non-clinical staff, including physicians, nurses, therapists, and technicians. The report includes a staffing ratio, shift schedules, and discusses...Read More

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING
Staffing Plan and Skill Mix

2NURSING
Clinical Jobs
Posts Types Skills
1. Physician Emergency room
doctor
Diagnostic skills, organizational skills,
interpersonal skills
Surgeon Patients, teamwork, communication
skills, motor skills
Specialist Detail knowledge of the system which
is dealt by the doctor. Interpretation of
specialized tests. Interpersonal and
communication skills
General Physician Working in a multidisciplinary team;
personal skills such as motivation,
compassion etc.
2. Nurses Certified Registered
Nurse Anesthetist
Communication skills, critical decision
making skills, strong teamwork skills.
Registered Nurse Stress management, critical thinking,
communication skills, and
organizational skills.
Licensed Practical
Nurse
Documentation, listening to the
patients, reporting to the Registered
nurse or physicians
Clinical Nurse
specialist
Organizational skills, critical thinking,
communicational skills
3. Technical
staffs
Radiologist Detail knowledge in anatomy,
analytical skills, clinical knowledge.
Ultrasound Technician Technical skill to operate the
equipment, motor skills, stamina,
compassion.

3NURSING
Discipline Staffing Ratio
Clinical staffs
Total Number of staffs Types of staffs Ratio
225 Physicians 50
Nurses 80
Technical staffs 20
Therapist 15
Pharmacist 15
Lab technician 30
Dietician 15
10:16:4:3:3:6:3
Non clinical staffs
Total Number of staffs Type of staffs Ratio
125 Accountant 10
Human resource management 5
Administrative assistance 25
Information Technology 10
Food service 30
Environmental service 45
2:1:5:2:6:9

4NURSING

5NURSING
Sample Staffing Schedule
Shift time Working hours Number of staffs
6 am to 2pm 8 hours Physicians- 15
Nurses- 24
Technical staffs- 7
Therapist-5
Pharmacist 5
Lab technician 10
Dietitian 6
Accountant 3
Human resource
management 2
Administrative assistance
8
Information Technology 4
Food service 15
Environmental service 15
2 pm to 10pm 8 hours Physicians- 17

6NURSING
Nurses- 30
Technical staffs- 5
Therapist-5
Pharmacist 5
Lab technician 10
Dietitian 5
Accountant 4
Human resource
management 3
Administrative assistance
10
Information Technology 3
Food service 10
Environmental service 15
10 pm to 6am 8 hours Physicians- 18
Nurses- 26
Technical staffs- 8
Therapist-5
Pharmacist 5
Lab technician 10

7NURSING
Dietitian 4
Accountant 3
Human resource
management NA
Administrative assistance
10
Information Technology 3
Food service 5
Environmental service 15
Diversity in nursing is an important factor as nurses often encounter patients from
different cultures. Moreover, in health care sectors, cultural diversity among health
professionals is reported (Kagawa-Singer, 2015). According American nurses association
(2019) nurses need to respect the values of other cultures. Therefore in this case, the staffs
will go through educational sessions so that they can understand the concept of diversity and
maintain cultural equality in work place (Kagawa-Singer, 2015).
Staffing plan can be affected by involvement of third party human resource. Therefore
adequate collaboration and negotiation is required (Zadkovich, 2015). In this case, the
clinical staffs of the hospitals will be recruited by the third party human resource while, the
human resource management of the hospital will involve in recruiting the non-clinical staffs
of the organization.

8NURSING
Unions in health care mostly involved to reduce workload and overtime of the health
professionals. In healthcare industry, lack of health professionals often lead to work load and
overtime related issues (Wolkinson, 2018). In this case, the working hours and number of
staffs are distributed accordingly to avoid high work load and overtime related issues.
In healthcare sectors, the number of nurses is directly connected with the better
outcomes of the patients. Different studies reported that, number of nurses in a hospital can
reduce the chances of mortality (Cho et al., 2015). Hence, in case of staffing plan, it is
important to maintain the number of nurses in the hospital for better treatment. This staff
planning sample highlighted the adequate number of nurses in the hospital. Therefore it can
support the better patient outcome.
There are several professional standards which involve in outpatient services. Firstly,
the outpatient clinic works under the license of the hospital. However, some additional
regulations requires state licensing. The licensing can be done by the FGI Guidelines for
Design (Facility Guidelines Institute, 2019) and Construction of Health care Facilities. Apart
from that, the health care building need to follow the International building code
(International Building Code, 2019). Apart from that, the clinics need to provide the
standards of The Joint Commission (The Joint Commission, 2019). The outpatient clinic need
to follow the Americans with disability Act and provide requirements as per the standard.
Nursing practice and nursing staffing plan is interconnected as both of these factors
can affect the health conditions of the patient. Minnesota Board of Nursing (2019), describes
Nursing practice act which includes different sections and the nursing staffing plan is made
on the basis of the Act. The nurses who will be recruited will be checked according to the
nurse practice act by the third party human resource management. As a result, the rules and
regulations will be maintained. Nursing practice involves several scopes including nursing

9NURSING
diagnosis, assessment, planning, implementation, coordination care, evaluation etc. Hence,
the staffing plan needs to be effective enough to target these factors. In this case, the skills
required for nurses can help to meet these scopes. The joint commission standards will be
maintained in case of outpatient.
There are several important tools which can involve in better health care delivery and
also connected with patient outcomes. Electronic health record is a tool which involves in
collecting the information related to the patient. It is an easy approach to manage the data
related to the patient and it can also be updated as per the patient’s condition (Campanella et
al., 2015). A patient who is situated at a specific distance from a hospital can be provided
with medical information and treatment by a tool called Telehealth (Nagy, 2017). Therefore,
it can improve the patient outcome in situations where hospitals is not nearby.
Cost effectiveness analysis can be used to understand the cost effectiveness of the
staffing plan. This is an economic analysis process that involves in comparing the relative
costs and effects of different action. In this method the total cost is divided by the outcomes
to understand the cost effectiveness (Neumann et al., 2016).
Treatment of a patient in a hospital is depended upon the quality and quantity of the
staffs. Staffs with good quality can involve in critical thinking and better diagnosis. On the
other hand, availability of staffs throughout the time can also influence the quality of
treatment in a hospital Neumann et al., 2016. In this staffing plan, specific skills are
mentioned for every staffs who are working in the hospital set up. Apart from that, the
scheduling distributed the number of staffs according to the shifting time. Therefore, the
staffing plan influence the better patient outcome in the hospital.

10NURSING
Reference
Kagawa-Singer, M., Dressler, W. W., George, S., & Elwood, W. N. (2015). The cultural
framework for health. Washington, DC: National Institutes of Health.
Zadkovich, G. (2015). Negotiations begin for new staffing agreement. Education, 96(7), 1.
Wolkinson, B. (2018). Union-Management Negotiations over Nurse Staffing Issues in
Hospitals. Members-only Library.
Cho, E., Sloane, D. M., Kim, E. Y., Kim, S., Choi, M., Yoo, I. Y., ... & Aiken, L. H. (2015).
Effects of nurse staffing, work environments, and education on patient mortality: an
observational study. International journal of nursing studies, 52(2), 535-542.
Hospital outpatient Department. (2019)| The Joint commission. Retrieved on: August 10
2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.jointcommission.org/hospital_outpatient_department/
Nurse Practice Act. (2019)|Minnesota Board of Nursing. Retrieved on: August 10 2019.
Retrieved from: https://mn.gov/boards/nursing/laws-and-rules/nurse-practice-act/
Campanella, P., Lovato, E., Marone, C., Fallacara, L., Mancuso, A., Ricciardi, W., &
Specchia, M. L. (2015). The impact of electronic health records on healthcare quality:
a systematic review and meta-analysis. The European Journal of Public Health,
26(1), 60-64.
Nagy, L. S. (2017). Telehealth: Changing Healthcare for Humans and Animals. Distance
Learning, 14(2), 41-47.
Neumann, P. J., Sanders, G. D., Russell, L. B., Siegel, J. E., & Ganiats, T. G. (Eds.). (2016).
Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. Oxford University Press.

11NURSING
Kutney-Lee, A., Stimpfel, A. W., Sloane, D. M., Cimiotti, J. P., Quinn, L. W., & Aiken, L. H.
(2015). Changes in patient and nurse outcomes associated with magnet hospital
recognition. Medical care, 53(6), 550.
Faculty guidelines institute. (2019). Retrieved on: August 10 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.fgiguidelines.org/guidelines-main/
American Nurses Association. (2019). Retrieved on August 10 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nursing-excellence/ethics/
The International Building Code. (2019). Retrieved on: August 10 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.iccsafe.org/products-and-services/i-codes/2018-i-codes/ibc/