short staffed

[Kim911er]

There is an excellent article in the Journal of Emergency Nursing this month on being short staffed in the ER. I am working in a hospital that sees aprox. 40,000 pts. a year and we are being cut back on staff. I would be interested to hear how other facilities

staff their depts. and how you "justify"

staffing needs to management

Thank you!

------------------

Kim

[CEN35]

Dear Kim,

I'm not sure how most er's figure on staffing, but currrently this is how our's has been staffed. WE have 17 beds, and see about 35,000 a year. Two years ago we had 6 RN's and a medic on evening shift. Then went to 7 RN's and a medic last year. Now we have 7.5 RN's and a medic per evening shift, d/t the increasing volume recently. In 2/99 we saw 400 more people than last year. Days and nights are staffed strangely, d/t the number of pts seen at certain times of the day. I beleive we start with 3 RN's and a medic at 0700, add one RN at 0830, and two more RN's at 1100, then at 1500 one medic and 7 RN's, then at 1900 one medic and 8 RN's, then at 2300 5 or 6 RN's, and at 0300 3 RN's. The talk now is to expand to 40 beds, because we are usually backed up 8 to 12 people. You have to remember though, that the administration always views it as a bussiness and is concerned with $$$$.

CEN