Improving staffing with a resource management plan

Our department goal is to have a flexible, responsive resource management plan (Fig. 3). The most important aspect is a stable unit core of staff. In our plan, we decide the desired census for a unit, budget for it, hire into an ideal position complement, keep the positions filled, prepare schedules that meet model every shift, and make adjustments every shift. We use the resource pool for deficit demands (leave of absence, unscheduled absence, posted vacancies) and for service demands (patient volume). When demands are higher than budgeted, we use extra shifts, prescheduled overtime, and travelers. When demands really peak, we use agency staff, incentives, and mandatory overtime. This project has identified all the steps that need to be taken to achieve that goal. It has been 18 months since we started the project, and it still is the beginning. The design teams have done the bulk of the foundation work, but managing the changes that they implemented is an ongoing challenge. We occasionally pause and recommit to the goal, validate our assumptions, and reaffirm our mind-set changes. There is now more understanding of what causes the problems that we experience and ways to resolve them. We have learned what a dynamic process it is to manage our resources through a plan that responds to both deficit demands and service demands 24 hours a day.