Patient Acuity/Workload Measurement Tool?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi -- I currently work on a Med-Surg/Telemetry floor that has seen a growth in high-acuity patients. We've been going crazy trying to justify increased staffing/find a solution to the craziness that happens daily on the unit. I've been searching the literature and internet for acutal samples/worksheets that other hospitals use to determine acuity/workload but haven't come across the actual tools. Can anyone supply an example of what their unit has been using?

Thanks!

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

I have used a few tools on the units I have worked on.

There's the GRASP system, there is also the Northwick Park dependency score and the TISS score.

You can google these and find information on them.

I have also used something called the PAT (patient acuity tool) but I can't find anything about it on google, this was one of the best because we sent our data off to be analysed and we got back recomendations for nurse staffing levels. Where I worked these were above what we had and we ended up getting an extra nurse per shift as a result.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

wfperseus, if you find one that really captures your acuity level and provides a justification for better staffing, please share it with me!! I don't know what our unit is using but it sure isn't working! (Of course, for it to work the person whose inputting the data should know what's going on with the patients, and that's something we'll never have.)

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Specializes in Intensive Care and Cardiology.

We use the grasp system, I've also heard it called MistroCleff.

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