Traditional staffing models of "hours per day" or "
midnight census" are not applicable in planning perinatal staffing because they do not consider the dynamic nature of caring for women during labor and birth, the first few hours after delivery, the surgical deliveries, and the needs of the newborn following birth as it transitions to extrauterine life.
* a revision of the
midnight census to accurately reflect the needs of patients.
How long have we complained about
midnight census? While some have made progress by collecting census more frequently, we have not successfully changed the pay practices that keep us fixated to a number that so misrepresents our work.
* Revise the '
midnight census' because it does not accurately reflect the needs of patients.
We are determined to illustrate that nurse staffing is more than staffing ratios,
midnight census, and the bottom line.
The claim also seeks to replace the
midnight census for nursing hours calculations with a system that accurately reflects patient numbers and provides patient "specialling" in addition to mandated nursing hours or ratios.
Under these conditions, the system of budgeting nursing services by
midnight census evolved.
Midnight census may be an outdated way of tracking work load as so many patients have early evening d/c and
midnight census does not reflect work between 7 am-7 pm when most patients come and go.
Other components of the claim include guaranteed nursing staff for patient specials, a change to a better system to calculate the occupancy of a ward or unit than the current "
midnight census", and protection of the nursing workforce skills mix.
Microsoft Excel's graphing and charting tool was used to develop a graph for tracking daily
midnight census variations throughout the pay period (see chart at right center of Figure 3).
* USE OF
MIDNIGHT CENSUS DATA--the NSWNMA will seek a better system than the current "
midnight census" to calculate the occupancy of a ward or unit.
* Since staffing decisions are made on a per-shift basis, calculating HPPD based upon
midnight census provided little decision-making support about variable staffing needs over a 24-hour period.