Nurse staff planning under conditions of a nursing shortage.

The shortage of qualified nurses presents some important managerial challenges for the hospital administrator. Nurse work force management has often been described as a three-phase planning and control process consisting of staffing, scheduling, and allocation. In this research study, the authors present a research methodology for improving the staffing phase of the process. Specifically, a nurse staffing model was developed as a means of improving the nurse staffing process for a 700-bed, nonprofit hospital.