A human resources decision support model: nurse deployment patterns in one Canadian system

Optimal deployment of current staff--as opposed to recruitment of new staff--has been recognized as an effective strategy for dealing with nurse human resource shortages in hospitals, especially during periods of overall nursing shortages. In this article we present a model for maximizing current nursing staff resources by incorporating three dimensions of staff deployment: workforce stability, employment mix, and average paid hours. Using centralized provincial payroll data from British Columbia, we analyzed a set of three indices that measure these factors to examine patterns of nurse deployment and their impact on total nurse human resource requirements. Furthermore, by constructing hypothetical scenarios and changing the parameters according to possible situations depicted by the model, it is possible to demonstrate the impact of alternate management strategies on nurse requirements. The results emphasize the need for dealing with staff deployment in a multidimensional manner that may vary by facility type; it is not the size of the full-time nursing component alone that should be the dominant consideration for all facilities. Innovative approaches to management are called for to maximize the deployment of a limited human resource pool.