Processes Underway to Establish Staffing Levels Based on Patient Care Needs
All health authorities are actively developing their plans to trial new patient care needs assessment processes in specific units throughout the province, and some pilots are now underway. Nurses are working alongside managers on this initiative and are strongly encouraged to provide feedback to their employer and the union. At this time, BCNU has not formally endorsed any of the processes.
We are in the collaborative stage of the process. Through the work of the strategic nurse staffing committees (SNSCs) in each health authority as well as other forums, we are adding our voice to help ensure this process is successful.
We are actively seeking feedback from front-line staff who are currently participating in the pilot units, currently underway in Fraser Health and Vancouver Island Health authorities. Nurses? input is critical to developing an effective, consistent process that will be used to promote safe nurse staffing levels based on patient/resident/client needs and to ensure a standardized approach to the way patient complexity and acuity is defined, as well as other workload factors.
This work is in support of Article 60 (B)(2) of the NBA provincial collective agreement (see joint interpretation for more detail). Article 60 states that a collaborative process will be developed for local level managers and in-charge nurses to determine staffing requirements that address short-term patient care needs.
For members working in community-based services, work is well underway to establish baseline staffing levels.
This assessment process will be used to determine staffing requirements on a shift-by-shift basis and is to be finalized no later than April 1, 2020.
For those members who are working and participating in the pilot sites, please watch for unit-based information updates and education opportunities to be announced soon.