Nursing Leadership

[Carrie Barnes]

I am the Director of a 30 bed Med/Surg unit and am new to nursing leadership. I am struggling with the productivity model that has been created for me and have been told that they are generous with the hours per patient that they have given me but I want to check with others. Can anyone share what they have for allowable hours per patient on their MS unit?

Thanks

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

You won't have enough info if people just shout out their info unless you can be sure you're comparing apples to apples. What are your Hours Per Patient Day? What is included? Is it 100% flex or do you have core/indirect + flex? Are education/orientation hours included? What is your budgeted replacement factor (total benefit hours - vacay, holiday)?

If no one at your organization can provide a clear explanation of how your HPPD were developed, then it's probably not accurate or achievable. If your organization has "drunk the Kool-Aid" and signed on with a proprietary productivity system, it may be a moot point because no matter how much logic you bring to the table, it's very unlikely that the C-Suite will change anything. *head shaking*

I would recommend using the NDNQI data related to staffing as your benchmark. This data is being integrated into national quality indicators for safe patient staffing because it accurately reflects 'nursing care needs' rather than financial targets.

[Carrie Barnes]

Thank you so much. The current finance people cannot tell me how they came up with the number because it was a system put into place prior to their arrival. I do know that education hours and replacement hours were removed. It just an arbitrary number of hours per day per unit. It includes the nursing staff, the charge nurse, myself, the secretary, and 0.25 of the unit coordinator that is shared with 3 other units. I am under fire because my scores are very low and I am trying to bring them up quickly without killing my staff and causing the quality of our care to suffer.