Development of Optimal Nursing Workforce Model and Its Application to Outpatients in a Tertiary Hospital

Jinhyun Kim (jinhyun@snu.ac.kr), Eunhee Lee (ehlee@hallym.ac.kr), Kyounga Lee (tj720221@snu.ac.kr), YeonHee Kim (kimyhee@amc.seoul.kr), SunHee Lee (qemfsun@amc.seoul.kr), JiHey Kim (bbkjh@amc.seoul.kr), KyeongYeon Oh (oky0200@hanmail.net), KyeongOk Heo (jackie-heo@hanmail.net) and HyunAh Choi (chhyunah@hanmail.net)
Additional contact information
Jinhyun Kim: College of Nursing, Seoul National University
Eunhee Lee: Division of Nursing, Hallym University
Kyounga Lee: College of Nursing, Seoul National University
YeonHee Kim: Nursing Department, Asan Medical Center
SunHee Lee: Children?s Nursing Team, Asan Medical Center
JiHey Kim: GI outpatient Department, Asan Medical Center
KyeongYeon Oh: GI outpatient Department, Asan Medical Center
KyeongOk Heo: Urology Department, Asan Medical Center
HyunAh Choi: GY inpatient Department, Asan Medical Center

No 5007702, Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to develop an optimal allocation model of nursing workforce and apply it to outpatients at a tertiary hospital in Korea. A workload model that consists of average number of patients per day and nursing time per patient was used to estimate the optimal number of nursing workforce in each clinical department, considering the annual off days per nursing staff. The nursing time was classified into three stages(reception-treatment-consulting) and the data were collected by one-to-one observation for three years. It was analyzed by three scenarios: scenario 1 considered actual days spent on vacation and holiday, scenario 2 reflected all holidays and annual leaves under labor act, and scenario 3 included only mandatory holidays and off days. The average number of patients per day varied from 29 to 846 according to clinical department, and required nursing time per patient was from 5.1 to 14.2 minutes. The actual nursing staffs per clinical department were 7.6 persons. The optimal nursing workforce was 7.1, 6.4, and 6.0 persons, respectively in the scenario 1, 2, and 3. In scenario 1, it was analyzed that -3.6 to 7.9 additional nursing staffs should be employed and an average of 0.5 staffs can be reduced. In scenario 2, it was analyzed that -2.9 to 8.7 (average 1.3) additional nursing staffs need to be employed. Lastly, scenario 3 estimated that -2.5 to 9.2 (average 1.7) additional nursing staffs need to be employed. However, this study estimated an optimal nursing workforce to a decimal point, while the number of nurses employed in real world is a positive integer. With nursing manpower allocation rounded to the nearest decimal, nurse staffing condition and patient outcomes could be improved. Therefore, it is recommended to consider an integer model of nurse staffing level in the further detailed studies.* This study was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea.

Keywords: Nursing workforce; Nurse staffing model; Workload (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 2 pages
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 30th International Academic Conference, Venice, May 2017, pages 99-100

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