Figuring out how to staff a unit once FTE are determined

[amennie]

Help I need to determine for a class project how much staff my 28 bed oncology unit needs. I figured the annual FTE 34.22....But don't know what to do next.

[TeachRNADN]

You have your FTEs now decide whether to staff 12 hour shifts or 8 hr shifts. Next divide your FTEs accordingly between 7A and 7P (ex). The next step is to determine an average daily cnsus (adc). Once that is established you will know how many nurses are needed each shift.

You need to staff higher for 7A as opposed to 7P so you may want to establish a percentage split such as 65% for 7A and 35% for 7P. Always remember you will need a minimum stffing of 2 licensed each shift for safety.

Good luck on this project. Hope it helps!

[TeachRNADN]

I forgot to tell you that a 36 hr/week employee is a 0.9 FTE so this allows you to have an extra person for every 9 36 hr employees. Also decide is you want to spend your FTEs on unlicensed people for the unit. Whenyou are not given a dollar amount as a budget, you can staff with higher priced employees. If u were given a do.lar budget, you need to take that into consideration as well! 1 f t e = a 40 hour/week employee!

[OCRN3]

.9 x 38 (12hr shift employees)=34.2 FTE

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[OCRN3]

If u staff 4 to 1 on a chemo onc unit you will need 7 nurses if the floor is full.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Not sure how you arrived at your FTE before figuring out your staffing needs.

What do you see as the safe staffing need? RN @ 1:3, 1:4, for each shift? How many CNA? Unit secretary for 8, 12, 16 hours per day?

1.0 FTE is either 36 or 40 hours, depending on your organizational structure. 34.22 x 40 gives your total available hours.