Concept about Staffing – This book covers the entire syllabus of “Leadership & Management” prescribed by the BNMC for Diploma in Nursing Science & Midwifery Students.
We tried to accommodate latest information and topics. This book is an examination setup according to the teachers’ lectures and examination questions. At the end of the book previous university questions are given. We hope in touch with the pook students’ knowledge will be upgraded and flourished. The unique way of presentation may make your reading of the book a pleasurable experience.
Concept about Staffing
The term ‘staffing’ may be defined as the process of procuring, developing, employing, appraising, remunerating and retaining the nursing personnel are available at right positions and time in nursing organization. It is the process through which nursing personnel are made available for rendering care to patients.
Organization is the formal structure of authority calculated to define, distribute and provide for the coordination of the tasks as contribution to the whole. When the aims of the organization properly design the planning of its institutions and its functional standard, it will have identified the kind and numbers of personnel it needs. The nurse executive or head of the institution will be the top of the organization.
His/Her powers and duties have, therefore, to be all embracing and he/she has to develop a great share of theirs to his/her subordinates, but even after doing so, he/she has to supervise, control and coordinate that work.
In a major organization, even this much of the work together with its incidental activities is as large and varied as to be beyond the capacity of a single individual. Always, there are too many things to think about, too many factors to consider, too diversified knowledge required for solution for the unaided capacity one leader to encompass.
So, the chief and other executives at head of major organization need help and the individual officer, and units that render this help are known as staff officers of units. They do not perform delegated duties as the line officers or units do. Staff is an expansion of the personality of executive, which means more eyes, more ears and more hands to help the executive in forming and carrying out his/her plans.
The help rendered by the staff is anonymous. The staff work means the service of advice or counsel, while line work is the function of authority or command. The concept of line and staff, developed first in military organization was borrowed from there and applied to civil organization and administration. Line refers to the officers and units that assist the chief and other executives in their function of planning, organization, direction, coordination, control, etc.
Staffing is an integral part of human resource management, It facilities procurement and placing right staff on the right job the nature of staffing functions is as follows
- Staffing is staff centered
- It is applicable in all types of organizations
- It is concerned with all categories of personnel from top to operational level
- It is basic function of management, like management it also needs planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling functions
- Manager of each level is engaged in performing the staffing function
- It is a continuous activity as the manager is to guide and train the subordinates, and also evaluate their performance
- It helps in placing right men at the right job
- The basis of staffing function is efficient management of personnel
- It is concerned with training and development of human resources
- Each manager is required to have human relation skills to perform staffing functions.
(Ref by- BT Basavanthappa/Nursing Administration/3/246)
Definition of Staffing:
According to Me Farland
“Staffing is the function by which managers build an organization through recruitment, selection and development of individuals as capable employees”
According to Theo Haimann
“Staffing pertains to recruitment, selection, development and compensation of subordinates”
According to Schmidt
“Staffing is the personnel activity that brings people to an organization to fulfill its mission, as delineated through strategic and human resource planning”
(Ref by- BT Basavanthappa/Nursing Administration/3/247)
Types of Staffing
There are three kinds of staff services and units-general staff, technical staff and auxiliary staff.
General Staff
The general staff is the staff, which helps the chief or other highly placed executive in his/her administrative work generally, by advice, collection of information, research and shifting of the important from unimportant ones, which is to go up to him/her, i.e. they act as filter and funnel.
Technical Staff
The general staff is the staff, which helps the chief or other highly placed executive in his/her administrative work generally, by advice, collection of information, research and shifting of the important from unimportant ones, which is to go up to him/her, i.e. they act as filter and funnel.
Technical Staff
Technical staff consists of the technical officer who is qualified in their own field like engineers, doctors, nurse’s experts, etc. They advise the chief in technical matters of their field and also keep functional supervision over the work of the technicians of the line in their own appropriate fields
Auxiliary Staff
Auxiliary staff consists of officers or units, which perform certain duties and functions common to the various departments, but that, are incidental in character, ie, not directly a part of those departmental main activities.
A government conducts its business with the help of a highly elaborate system of organization held together by what may be termed ‘chain of command’. The central hierarchy comprises the line; assisting the line are the staff and auxiliary agencies.
Line works with the direct accomplishment of program objectives and is served by staff and auxiliaries. Staff provides specialized advice, but does not command and auxiliary provides common services.
As authority is merely a recent outgrowth of staff authority for rendering specialist services and as very often it is combined with staff authority, we must have a clear idea about distinctive role of line and staff authority.
(Ref by- BT Basavanthappa/Nursing Administration/ 3/247)
Objectives/Purposes of Staffing:
1. Provide an all professional nurse staff in critical care units, operating rooms, labor and emergency room
2. To provide continuous quality nursing care to patient with the available staff.
3. To evaluate staffing practice periodically in order to determine the scope of staffing problem.
4. To recruit qualified nursing staff.
5. Provide sufficient staff to permit a 1:1 nurse- patient ratio for each shift in every critical care unit
6. Staff the general medical, surgical, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric and psychiatric units to achieve a 2:1 professional-practical nurse ratio.
7. Provide sufficient nursing staff in general, medical, surgical, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric and psychiatric units to permit a 1:5 nurse patient ratio on a day and afternoon shifts and 1:10 nurse- patient ratio on night shift.
8. To utilize the talents and skills nursing personnel.
9. To provide new employees with an adequate orientation period.
10. To develop personnel policies that attract and provides effective staff members.
11. To establish a master staffing plan.
12. To maintain records patient to staffing data.
13. Post time schedules for all personnel at least eight weeks in advance.
14. Empower the head nurse to adjust work schedules for unit nursing personnel to remedy any staff excess or deficiency caused by census fluctuation or employee absence.
15. Inform each nursing employee that requests for specific vacation or holiday time will be honored within the limits imposed by patient care and labor contract requirements. 16. Reward employees for long term service by granting individuals special time requests on the basis of seniority.
Related Factors Affecting Staffing:
1. The need to provide hospita and nursing services 24 hours a day.
2. Unpredictability
3. Differentiating betw nursing care and patient care.
4. Budget limitations that do not provide for realistic personnel requirement.
5. Time spent by nursing personnel performing non nursing duties.
6. Employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
7. Improper utilization of personal.
8. Unpredictable turnover of nursing personnel.
9. Instability and inflexibility of staff
10. Decreased continuity of patient care.
11. Staffing for weekend.. holidays and vacations.
12. Span of supervision
13. Lack of qualified protessional nurse for leadership position.
14. No staff developtient program.
15. Absenteeism among staff.
16. Lack of physical facilities, supplies and equipment.
17. Inability of the hospital to understand nursing needs of patients.
18. Meeting changing need of patients.
(Ref by- Handout)
Functions of Staffing
1. Identifying the type and amount of service needed by agency client.
2. Determining the personnel categories that have the knowledge and skill to perform needed service measures.
3. Predicting the number of personnel in each job category that will be needed to meet anticipated service demands.
4. Obtaining, budgeted positions for the number in each job category needed to service for the expected types and number of clients.
5. Recruiting personnel to fill available positions.
6. Selecting and appointing personnel from suitable applicants.
7. Combining personnel into desired configurations by unit and shift.
8. Orienting personnel to fulfill assigned responsibilities.
9. Assigning responsibilities for client services to available personnel.
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