Nursing workload measurement: an expanded future role

Workload measurement systems used by nursing services are based on the concept that each patient has a unique requirement for care. As a result the detailed data are provided which managers require to identify what kinds of patients use what volume of nursing manpower resources and at what cost. Because of the great diversity of systems used, modification to some will likely be required in the future to allow the data produced to be integrated with comprehensive hospital information in accordance with the MIS Guidelines under development by the project team. This team, together with an array of resource people, have developed standard definitions of categories of work and guidelines for workload measurement systems. In this manner, nursing services across the country can maintain their freedom of choice of systems, while information about the cost of patient care is improved and comparability of information between hospitals is enhanced.