Please Help...acuity Staffing Tool

Jedi Master · Jul 11, 2005

PLEASE HELP... DOES ANYONE HAVE A STAFFING ACUITY TOOL THEY WOULD SHARE. DESPERATELY TRYING TO STAFF A SMALL NURSERY BY ACUITY. :uhoh21: :uhoh21:

I remember using one at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. It was mandated by their union but was a work in progress to implement in the NICU there. It was good because you could grade acuity but it helped the next shift more than the current shift. However, it required documentation of parent teaching or if an infant required mored than 3 hours of care per 12 hour shift and was an another sheet to fill out per patient, per shift. e.g. "Two RN's required at the bedside during admission for 1 1/2 hour, assisting with line placement and starting IFV and drips." I can't remember the name but it was done by an accounting firm that used a 1-7 scale. 7 being critical. To me, it had its merits but also its shorcomings as it was used by all units.

Laura21 · Jul 24, 2005

PLEASE HELP... DOES ANYONE HAVE A STAFFING ACUITY TOOL THEY WOULD SHARE. DESPERATELY TRYING TO STAFF A SMALL NURSERY BY ACUITY. :uhoh21: :uhoh21:

I have used a couple of acuity tools, and are currently working on trying yet another one. However, every time it has been found that they are not accurate in justifying adequate staff for the NICU.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Jul 24, 2005

We use one too, but the name isn't with me...it doesn't help us in the least. You can have feeders that are as horrid as the sicker ones and there isn't a way to justify it on paper.

RN4BABES · Jul 25, 2005

We use something called "Grasp" but so many things are not taken into consideration so I don't find it very accurate. It's a computer program that we started using a few years back. It doesn't acount for chronic babies, difficult feeders, charting, answering the parent's phone calls etc!