Organizational Level Recommendations

1.0 Organizations develop a workforce plan in order to ensure staffing that facilitates the delivery of safe, competent, culturally sensitive, and ethical care, and positive patient outcomes.

1.1 Safe nursing staffing processes are conducted by unit/operational nurse leaders who possess the requisite knowledge, professional judgment, skills, and authority, in collaboration with nursing staff at the point-of-care.

1.2  The board, administrative leadership, and human resources work collaboratively with point-of-care leaders to ensure that effective staffing processes, appropriate models of care delivery, and sufficient nurses in appropriate categories are in place in order to provide safe, quality, patient-centred care.

1.3  Organizations budget to provide sufficient nurses in appropriate categories to support the delivery of quality, safe patient care and positive patient outcomes and to reduce the financial costs associated with overtime.

1.4 Organizations and those responsible for staffing create and employ a clear communication strategy to address staffing needs in unplanned situations, such as pandemics; code whites, browns, and blacks; and other situational disasters.

1.5  Organizations develop a comprehensive framework, such as the patient care delivery systems model (PCDSM), to help them understand staffing needs and their impact on intermediate and distal outputs.

2.0  Organizations utilize reliable and valid tools to help determine patient needs and workload in order to support personalized care and provide sufficient numbers of nurses in appropriate categories to provide safe, quality patient care.

2.1 Organizations use electronic health records (EHRs) and other integrated systems as appropriate to support safe, effective workload processes.

3.0  Nursing leaders make evidence-based decisions when conducting nurse staffing planning to provide sufficient numbers of nurses in appropriate categories required to safely and effectively meet patients’ needs.