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Staffing in Acute & Critical Care

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Staffing: New Approaches Are Crucial

Inappropriate nurse staffing is a persistent and significant barrier to delivering optimal patient care and one of the most dangerous threats to patient safety and nurse well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this challenge to the point of crisis.

It will take a collaborative effort to change the staffing paradigm in our country to one that values nurse staffing as an investment in patient safety and better outcomes rather than an expense.

We know that appropriate staffing ensures an effective match between the needs of the patient and family, and the knowledge, skills and abilities of the nurse. It sounds simple, and yet it is not. It is time to stop bandaging our current staffing model—new approaches are crucial.

Advocacy in Action: Leading the Way for Appropriate Staffing

In partnership with the American Nurses Association, American Organization for Nursing Leadership, Healthcare Financial Management Association and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, AACN led an initiative to identify strategies that address the crisis in acute and critical care staffing.

AACN convened the Partners for Nurse Staffing, which launched a Nurse Staffing Think Tank and Nurse Staffing Task Force. Together we created new staffing solutions that advance patient outcomes while ensuring a better work environment for nurses and all members of the healthcare team.

In this video, Task Force member Ryan Miller shares how nurses can implement the recommendations developed by the two groups.

Task Force Recommendations

Think Tank Recommendations

Nurse Staffing Solutions From Our Community

Swing-Shift Relief

After adding a swing-shift RN position to assist with workload support, one unit noted a substantial reduction in nurse turnover. Read how the role helps streamline patient transfers and admissions and ensures break coverage for the rest of the team.

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We Belong: Connecting Nurses With Communities

Two nurse leaders initiated the We Belong program to diversify the nursing workforce and thus improve patient care and nurse satisfaction. Their comprehensive approach includes standardized hiring practices and stratifying data to address barriers to retention.

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Workload Tool to Assist With Staffing

A health system developed a tool to calculate patient care workload, based on the nursing interventions documented in the electronic health record. Read how a nurse used collaboration and perseverance to lead this innovation.

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Share Your Innovative Staffing Solutions

Nurses are innovative and flexible when faced with a challenge. While AACN is exploring large-scale and collaborative staffing transformations, we know you are innovating at the unit level to find new ways to approach nurse staffing.

Please share the new and different approaches you have taken that resulted in improvements to staffing. Your experience can inspire others, and even small steps move us all closer to our goal of appropriate staffing for all healthcare institutions. Together, we can shine a light on creative solutions that are happening now.

Share Your Solution

Key Nurse Staffing Resources

AACN, a longtime champion for appropriate staffing, offers many resources. These featured resources can help you navigate staffing challenges, seek solutions and make your optimal contribution to support a healthy work environment and care for patients and their families.

AACN Standards for Appropriate Staffing in Adult Critical Care

These seven standards, developed with input from our community, offer guidance to improve some of the many processes that affect appropriate registered nurse staffing. They include specific actions, exemplars, tools and resources that support nurses and enhance patient care.

Nurse Staffing Task Force Imperatives, Recommendations and Actions

Review recommendations and actions put forth by the Nurse Staffing Task Force that address five imperatives: reforming the work environment, innovating care delivery, establishing standards, improving regulatory efficiency, and recognizing the value of nursing.

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Nurse Staffing Think Tank: Priority Topics and Recommendations

Review a set of priorities and recommendations, developed by the Nurse Staffing Think Tank, that provide immediate strategies that can be feasibly implemented in the short term (12-18 months) to help address the nurse staffing crisis.

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Society of Pediatric Nurses Position Statement on Staffing

Review recommendations from the Society of Pediatric Nurses to be considered as part of a staffing plan for the nursing care of children.

Nurse Staffing: Ratios, Reimbursement and the Work Environment

Review key issues related to safe nurse staffing, including discussing ratios, changing reimbursement models to address the value of nursing care, and the importance of a healthy work environment.

Protecting Your Nursing License When Staffing Is Suboptimal

The ability to provide care safely, as well as protecting nursing licenses, may be at risk when barriers to appropriate staffing exist. Review strategies to protect your license, including understanding regulatory standards, tapping into resources from boards of nursing, and using a decision-making process.

Additional Resources

We offer journal articles, webinars, books and other materials to help with staffing challenges. Explore AACN’s many resources to support your journey to appropriate staffing and healthy work environments.