Question

Staffing & Budgeting

Sandra Vanhorn is opening a newly created ambulatory care clinic adjacent to a university teaching hospital. She has designed a staffing pattern that staffs below maximum workload conditions to stay within budget. Nurse Vanhorn will supplement her staffing by using the float pool at the hospital to cover her unit when the schedules are heavy. She feels that using supplemental staff may disrupt orientation and work routines, so she is going to orient five pool nurses to the ambulatory clinic routine and request that they fill the shortages.

1. (a) What type of staffing is Nurse Vanhorn using to deliver services to clients in the clinic? (b) In planning her mix of full- and part-time or floating staff, which is most likely to become more costly: having one too many full-time nurses or being short one full-time nurse?

2. What are the benefits and the challenges of this type of staffing approach?

Answer 1

Answers :

1 ) (a) What type of staffing is Nurse Vanhorn using to deliver services to clients in the clinic?

• Nurse vanhorn using Float pool nurse staffing to deliver ambulatory care services to clients in the clinic.

(b) In planning her mix of full- and part-time or floating staff, which is most likely to become more costly: having one too many full-time nurses or being short one full-time nurse?

• Float pools can help save thousands over the course of a year. There won’t be any wasted productivity on the job, and patients will receive the optimum level of care they need to heal faster and better.

2. What are the benefits and the challenges of this type of staffing approach?

Benefits of Float pool Nurse :

• Float nurses are typically more competent and provide higher quality care than regular nurses. This is because they are cross-trained in different areas of care and may know how to better monitor rare conditions.
• Not only that, but float pools offer nurses more autonomy and flexibility over their schedule. Instead of being stuck in a repeating schedule that offers limited time off, nurses can pick and choose which shifts they’d like to work.
• Even better, they’ll be able to gather more clinical experiences which they can use to broaden their knowledge and sharpen their teamwork skills.
• As for the healthcare organization itself, float pools can help save thousands over the course of a year. There won’t be any wasted productivity on the job, and patients will receive the optimum level of care they need to heal faster and better.

Challenges of Float pool Nurse :

• Short staffing leads to care not being done causing patients and families feel unsafe and dissatisfied with the staff and nursing management
• There is no quality of care and safety is compromised.
• Unfamiliarity of certain areas is the most common problem encountered by the float nurse causing stress, anxiety and frustration.