Setting Safe Nurse Staffing Levels: an Exploration of the Issues

One of the resolutions at the RCN’s 2000 Congress expressed concerned at the lack of a universal mechanism to determine safe staffing levels. This reflected widespread concern within the profession about the potential increase in risks to patient safety posed by increased levels of activity, and inadequate levels of nurse staffing, in the NHS. Over the years, there have been many attempts to develop a universally acceptable and reliable formula which will be able to predict the precise nurse staffing levels needed to ensure patient safety. Even if this is not a realistic goal, and the literature on workforce planning suggests that it is not, the Congress resolution provided a timely opportunity to reconsider the important professional and managerial issues associated with setting safe staffing levels. [author’s description]