Following the unit’s expansion, we have established three goals to consider when creating the shift allocation. First of all, it is essential to maintain the standards of patient treatment, ensuring that the rehabilitation process has been as productive as possible (Greaves et al., 2018). In this regard, the first aim is to uphold the primary discharge criteria, evaluating the client before discharge and assessing the success of their recovery. After that, the second objective necessitates sustaining a high quality of care, which is directly linked to the efficiency of the established working schedule. Considering that inappropriate allocation of working resources and complications emerging due to scheduling errors can significantly impact the employees’ productivity, creating a detailed and viable shift program is imperative for achieving this target (Griffiths et al., 2016). Finally, the last goal is connected to patient teaching, ensuring that clients acquire the information relevant for their future well-being and disease prevention. Informing the patients of the treated disorder, its consequences, and methods of symptom alleviation demands additional time inputs, which should be considered during shift allocation.
The differences between caregivers and support personnel FTEs allocation is presented as follows:
- The overall FTE number for the caregivers is 30, including full-time and part-time workers, while support personnel requires 2.5 FTEs.
- This allocation considers the increase in patient numbers, as new clients will require additional care and attention from the nursing staff. Therefore, elevating the number of available nursing employees is prioritized.
- Although nine more beds will be added following the unit expansion, the responsibility for observing the supplementary monitors will be directed to other available personnel after relevant training.
- Given that over time can negatively impact workplace productivity, it is advised to avoid this strategy (Ingels & Maenhout, 2018). Therefore, rather than requiring overtime from the unit clerks, these duties will be delegated to the trained workers, avoiding the shortage of support personnel while maintaining a high number of caregivers.
To accomplish the goals set, five part-time and seven full-time positions will have to be added. As such, the number of registered nurses working part-time is to increase by one, while three more licensed practical nurses will be required to join the unit. In addition, one nursing assistant working every other weekend will be needed. After that, extra full-time positions include the addition of four registered nurses and one nursing assistant working from Monday to Friday. These positions will allow accounting for the extra patients while ensuring that discharge criteria are evaluated and met for each individual. Furthermore, it will be possible to maintain a high quality of care, avoiding nursing shortages and providing the staff with additional time to engage in patient teaching.
In order to uphold/improve the same staffing ratio (1:4), the minimum number of employees necessary for the three shifts will be Y. Considering that the full-time nursing staff is currently engaged in 12-hour shifts and working every third weekend, accounting for the increase in patient numbers will be especially challenging, necessitating a higher number of nursing personnel.
During the assignment, the leader in our group was X, who successfully assumed the leading role as the project was being developed. In the initial meetings, X presented high enthusiasm for the assignment, initiating discussions and prompting the other group members to offer their ideas. Furthermore, X was prepared to take responsibility for the decisions, suggesting valuable problem resolution strategies that allowed us to choose the best pathway according to the circumstances. Finally, X also presented exceptional knowledge of the issues that could be encountered during shift allocation, providing examples from personal experience to support their expertise.
References
Greaves, J., Goodall, D., Berry, A., Shrestha, S., Richardson, A., & Pearson, P. (2018). Nursing workloads and activity in critical care: A review of the evidence. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 48, 10–20. Web.
Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Drennan, J., Dall’Ora, C., Jones, J., Maruotti, A., Pope, C., Recio Saucedo, A., & Simon, M. (2016). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes: Strengths and limitations of the evidence to inform policy and practice. A review and discussion paper based on evidence reviewed for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Safe Staffing guideline development. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 63, 213–225. Web.
Ingels, J., & Maenhout, B. (2018). The impact of overtime as a time-based proactive scheduling and reactive allocation strategy on the robustness of a personnel shift roster. Journal of Scheduling, 21(2), 143–165. Web.