Using an Acuity Tool to Maintain Productivity While Adhering to AWHONN's Perinatal Nurse Staffing Guidelines

Poster PresentationPurpose for the ProgramThe art of scheduling perinatal nursing staff in a small community hospital is challenging in a specialty where census and acuity are highly unpredictable. This challenge on a women and children's (WMCH) unit is particularly complex because of five specialties: labor and delivery, postpartum/newborn, pediatrics, Level‐II nursery, and cesarean birth operating room. The hospital was facing decreasing revenue, increased cost because of health care reform, fluctuations in volume, and uncompensated costs. The hospital took this opportunity to reevaluate productivity and used a health care analytics company to adopt a new productivity benchmark for all departments.Proposed ChangeThe hospital's operations excellence process utilized the Lean and Six Sigma methods to improve performance, which required that frontline staff of all levels creatively develop solutions. The WMCH department used the Lean and Six Sigma methods to determine a plan to meet this goal while maintaining quality care and patient satisfaction. Previously the staffing assignments were done every shift based on charge nurse predictions not on evidence. This method was unreliable and generated frustration when there were discrepancies. To staff for patient census, varying acuity levels, and maintain staffing ratios recommended by AWHONN, the department incorporated an acuity tool into the daily nursing assignment sheet.Implementation, Outcomes, and EvaluationThe sheet yiel...
Source: Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Professional Issues Source Type: research