Introduction
Nursing workload data has not been used consistently for its original purpose: predicting staffing requirements and making staffing decisions. Too often, little time was paid to monitoring a workload measurement system to ensure that it accurately reflected the practice environment. Several studies have shown that workload measurement systems may not indicate true workload.
In 2006, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) completed a study on the collection of nursing workload data. The study evaluated the quality and value of the data, and the cost-benefit of collecting the data. Results of the study led to the MOHLTC's recommending that the collection of nursing workload data be mandatory only for case-costing hospitals. The reason was that, at the time, there was no alternative in place to predict the cost of nursing.
The present nursing demonstration study, commissioned by the Nursing Secretariat of Ontario, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, will explore the factors that affect nursing resources. It will also investigate the feasibility of a model to predict the use of nursing resources.