Patient acuity directly affects nursing staff requirements. When nurses consistently collect patient acuity data, they help to build an evidence base to support Safe Staffing for both nurses and patients.
What is Safe Staffing?
Safe Staffing is described in the Safe Staffing Committee of Inquiry Report (2005) as an appropriately resourced, well organised, healthy, care delivery environment in which patients achieve the planned outcomes. The Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) Programme that is currently being implemented in District Health Boards supports DHBs in partnership with NZNO to deliver safe staffing.
The CCDM programme tools help match patients’ need for care with the right staffing
The CCDM Programme is a set of tools and processes that help DHBs better match the capacity to care with patient demand. The goal is quality patient care, quality work environment and best use of health resources.
The CCDM website provides a road map for each CCDM component and a set of documents that take you through implementation step by step. The toolkit helps set up the processes needed to be successful.
The CCDM Programme standards describe best practice to achieve safe staffing, healthy workplaces.
The CCDM programme has a set of standards. Assessment against the standards provides evidence of the degree to which the CCDM programme has been implemented and sustained overtime. The standards assessment can be completed:
- Before a DHB begins the CCDM Programme
- Anytime in between to assess progress with implementation
- To show where effort needs to be prioritised for the DHB CCDM work plan.
- At the completion of the programme
- On request from the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces (SSHW) Unit Governance Group.
To meet the standards, programme implementation needs to be prioritised, appropriately resourced and sequenced.
You can find everything you need to do this on the CCDM website.
