i need two peer review1. Nhery Lecorps
Saint Thomas University
NUR-419-AP2.25/SP2
Julie Michelle Menendez
04/10/2025
Staffing in psychiatric hospitals is an essential element in ensuring patient safety, maintaining quality care, and achieving operational efficiency. In my facility, staffing challenges often arise due to the complexities associated with the population being served. To address these challenges and manage fluctuating patient volumes, many psychiatric hospitals turn to supplemental and floating staff. This approach offers significant advantages, such as flexibility in staffing and enhanced resource allocation during peak times. However, it also presents challenges related to continuity of care and staff cohesion. Examining the benefits and disadvantages of supplemental and floating staff, comparing staffing plans across various nursing units, and analyzing their impact on the staffing budget provides critical insights into optimizing psychiatric hospital operations.
Benefits of Supplemental and Floating Staff
Hospital staff members who provide per-diem or agency nursing services can adapt their schedules to meet the expanding needs of patient care and nursing shortages throughout the facility. Standards of care remain consistent across units at the hospital through the utilization of float staff, as mentioned in Bae et al. (2020). Flexible staff management approaches in healthcare facilities reduce staff members from excessive overtime work and safeguard their mental well-being, which in turn leads to higher employee satisfaction rates and lower employee turnover figures (Griffiths et al., 2019). Excessive pressure on existing staff members diminishes because the extra workforce performs critical care responsibilities. Floating nurses actively work during busy periods to allocate appropriate care and service to every patient, according to Bitanga (2020).
Disadvantages of Supplemental and Floating Staff
Healthcare organizations face decreased consistent care when employing temporary personnel for their staff needs. Hospital protocols remain unclear and subject to temporary staff, which leads to unfavorable treatment standards and declining care quality (Bae et al., 2020). Supplemental staff and long-term personnel experience tensions within the organization due to pay discrepancies together with varying workloads (Griffiths et al., 2019). When floating staff requires orientation, it leads to a decline in performance, along with increased costs associated with adapting between units (Bitanga 2020). Organizational output suffers because of the multiple obstacles that exist together.
Comparison of Staffing Plans across Units
Each psychiatric facility requires different numerical staffing requirements. Healthcare staff numbers must increase in intensive psychiatric units because patients exhibit severe conditions in addition to needing continuous medical surveillance. Staff from the reserve team handle exceptional mental patients who require admission into the unit. A stable patient population in long-term care requires minimal nursing-staff ratios but is dependent on strong nurse-to-patient relationships as the key practice element.Staff members must possess advanced expertise to work effectively at emergency psychiatric units that experience irregular patient admissions. The emergency medical system requires experienced subcontracted workers to maintain quality patient care levels when hospital admissions increase.
Impact on Staffing Budget
The system benefits from flexible staffing with supplemental staff, but this service requires a payment rate above that of permanent staff. Long-term employment of temporary staff members creates a financial burden on budgets, according to Griffiths et al. (2019). Supplemental staffing enables hospitals to reduce overtime expenses, as reported by Bae et al. (2020), producing temporary financial benefits for the organization. Each unit’s budget planning relies heavily on its staff requirements for increased ratios, together with special training needs in acute care facilities.
Conclusion
Hospital psychiatric departments use temporary workers and floating personnel to guarantee adaptable care for sudden, unexpected patient needs. Supplemental staff introduces substantial difficulties to organizations by diminishing both patient-care continuity during shifts and raising operational costs. Organizations need to create staffing models that unite safe patient care standards with staff well-being and budgetary requirements for each unit area. A properly designed staffing system sustains high-quality care delivery and operational excellence.
References
Bae, S. H., Mark, B., & Fried, B. (2020). Use of supplemental nurses and quality of care in psychiatric hospitals. Journal of Nursing Administration, 50(3), 123-130.
Bitanga, M. E. (2020). Effects of floating to nurses and patient care.
Griffiths, P., Maruotti, A., Recio Saucedo, A., & Redfern, O. C. (2019). Nurse staffing, nursing assistants, and hospital mortality: Retrospective longitudinal cohort study. BMJ Quality & Safety, 28(8), 609-617
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2 .Staffing Plan and Staffing BudgetName: Milvertong RomainAffiliation: St. Thomas UniversityCourse: NUR-419Instructor: Julie Michelle MenendezDue Date: 04/10/2025 Staffing Plan and Staffing BudgetBenefits and Disadvantages of Using Supplemental and Floating Staff There are numerous advantages of adopting supplemental and floating staff in the healthcare facility, and the most appealing one is the flexibility that it establishes. They allow for meeting increased admissions, employee turnover, and other changes, including seasonal fluctuations, at every department (Tuominen et al., 2020). This approach has the effect of preventing staff fatigue among the permanent workers, increases staff morale and also cuts down on unnecessary expenses incurred on overtime. Furthermore, the use of the supplemental staff means that one can consider the temporary employees for full-time positions, giving the organization a chance to find qualified personnel without having to offer a long-term contract (Tuominen et al., 2020). The facilities too stand to save on costs since full-time employees have major overhead costs that include health insurance, paid vacation, or a pension package.However, some problems are inherent to supplemented and floating employees. Possible negative effects include that moving from one unit to another might become confusing if the floating nurses do not understand the unit’s policies, equipment and patients (Tuominen et al., 2020). Such an inconsistency can lead to decreased productivity, increase in errors, and reduced patient satisfaction. Another disadvantage that can be associated with having a floating staff is that such workers are not as committed to the particular facility as permanent employees are, which causes a decrease in morale as well as the increase of turnover (Tuominen et al., 2020). Supplemental staff also need to be trained and oriented which may put a toll on the organization’s resource and cost implications. In addition, the use of temporary staffing may lead to staff turnover, which hinders the formation of strong teams and compromises the quality of care provided.Differences in Staffing Plans for Different Nursing Units and Budget ImpactA staffing plan varies from one nursing unit to another depending on patient needs, the specialty of the unit and the legal frameworks (Kennedy & Sandow, 2024). For instance, a specific area such as an intensive care unit (ICU) calls for a larger nurse-to-patient ratio given the fact that the patients in this area are very fragile and require close attention. On the other hand, a medical-surgical unit can afford lower nurse-to-patient ratio as the patient conditions are not as critical most of the time (Kennedy & Sandow, 2024). Emergency departments are often faced with unpredictable volumes of patients and therefore may have more staff variability than other departments while nursing homes may have fewer RNs and more CNAs for routine patients. Every unit should have a staffing plan that meets the needs of patient safety, patient quality, and patient care turnover while adhering to the state or national standards and regulatory laws. Profit-oriented healthcare organizations generate financial incentives which enable them to improve operational efficiency as well as resource management alongside innovation development. These organizations succeed in drawing investment capital while purchasing new medical technologies that help them grow their patient service capacity. FP organizations face the core drawback of putting profit ahead of healthcare quality which can create more expensive medical services and restricted medical care access for disadvantaged populations (Ross, 2022).The change in the type of staffing plans affects the staffing costs greatly. Services that are more intensive, for instance, Intensive Care Units need more specialized personnel who will demand higher remunerations and thus, more expenses on the labor factor. Hospitals must invest more resources in training, certification, and retention of staff to ensure that they have enough staff in highly specialized areas (Kennedy & Sandow, 2024). On the other hand, units with lower acuity, for example rehabilitation or post-acute, will have lower staffing costs as they are staffed with fewer RNs and more support personnel. Moreover, there is budget impact on supplemental and floating staff since they are relatively expensive due to the extra pay they receive as compared to permanent employees (Kennedy & Sandow, 2024). Effective management of staff and resources, as well as financial planning for each unit, is critical in controlling costs while providing the best quality care to the clients. ReferencesKennedy, J. M., & Sandow, B. (2024). The nurse manager’s guide to innovative staffing. Sigma Theta Tau.Tuominen, O., Lundgren-Laine, H., Teperi, S., & Salanterä, S. (2020). Comparing the two techniques for nursing staff rescheduling to streamline nurse managers’ daily work in Finland. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 38(3), 148-156.
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