Developing and Sustaining Safe, Effective Staffing and Workload Practices

Published: February 2017
Available in English, French
Health system,  Healthy work environment (HWE)

Purpose and scope

The purpose of this best practice guideline (BPG) is to inform staffing and workload recommendations that can be implemented to benefit patients, nurses and other health-care providers, and organizations, as well as research, education, health-care policy, and systems. The goal of this guideline…

The purpose of this best practice guideline (BPG) is to inform staffing and workload recommendations that can be implemented to benefit patients, nurses and other health-care providers, and organizations, as well as research, education, health-care policy, and systems. The goal of this guideline is to assist nurses, nursing leaders, and senior management groups across practice domains and settings to create healthy work environments through safe, effective staffing and workload practices.

This guideline is aimed at all categories of nurses in all roles and practice settings, including: 

  • administrators at the unit, organizational, and system levels, 
  • clinical nurses, 
  • students, 
  • educators,
  • researchers, and 
  • members of the interprofessional team. 

It may also be used by

  • policy-makers, 
  • patient groups, 
  • governments, 
  • professional organizations, 
  • employers, 
  • labour groups, and 
  • federal, provincial, and territorial standard-setting bodies and policy organizations, such as Accreditation Canada.

Reference

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. (2017). Developing and Sustaining Safe, Effective Staffing and Workload Practices (2nd ed.). Toronto, ON: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

Recommendations

Do you want to learn about and implement the most- up-to-date evidence-based recommendations on this topic with your colleagues? Download and share the full best practice guideline (BPG), Developing and Sustaining Safe, Effective Staffing and Workload Practices.
See below for a snapshot of the recommendations from this BPG. We strongly suggest you review the full BPG before implementing the recommendations and good practice statements. The BPG also includes further resources to support implementation and evaluation.  

Disclaimer: These guidelines are not binding for nurses, other health providers or the organizations that employ them. The use of these guidelines should be flexible and based on individual needs and local circumstances. They constitute neither a liability nor discharge from liability. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents at the time of publication, neither the authors nor the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) gives any guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in them or accepts any liability with respect to loss, damage, injury or expense arising from any such errors or omission in the contents of this work.

Methodology documents

Revision status

Current edition published 2017.

This BPG replaces the RNAO BPG Developing and Sustaining Effective Staffing and Workload Practices (2007). 

Contact

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