For healthcare administrators who are responsible for staffing, nursing is one of the most critical areas they need to cover, especially when it comes to per diem staffing. Getting great nurses are obviously essential for emergencies, but its just as important in specialty areas and in different departments and specialties.

So what are some of the basics? What are the specifics? This article presents an overview of nursing staffing and some of the issues involved, starting with the way staffing is organized.

These days, one of the big buzz words is matrix staffing where per diem staffing plays a critical role. In this kind of approach, patient needs are matched to the areas of competence possessed by the best nurses.

This accomplishes a couple of things. One outcome is that it tends to create a healthier work environment, largely because it helps nurses provide much-needed care hours versus the normal routines chores and hours that are associated with their jobs.

This in turn leads to better patient outcomes, which increases the rating of each individual hospital that hires these nurses.

Safety is a huge issue as well. This isn’t just a matter of basic procedures—its important to get nurses with the right mix of education, experience, and skills. This increases the amount and the level of quality care, and it allows support staff to excel at their jobs as well.

If safety isn’t a major factor, the repercussions can be devastating. Studies have shown that inadequate staffing that includes getting experienced nurses in the right areas of care can mean more infections, more patient falls, and more medication errors. In some instances, these kinds of mistakes can lead to serious injury and even death, so it’s important to get the staffing right when it comes to nursing.

The ways in which nurses increase safety as part of a staffing matrix are important as well. Nurses with the right level of expertise can help doctors perform complex tasks, and they can provide specific types of clinical care as well.

This helps the workflow of the hospital as a whole, creating a ripple effect in which per diem staffing helps everyone becomes better at their jobs.

Communication is a serious issue, too. Qualified nurses can flag problems before they spiral out of control, and they can identify conditions that must be treated by specialists as well. It’s crucial to avoid short staffing that can cause dangerous issues, which is why hospital administrators must be educated in all areas of staffing for nursing needs. It may seem more costly at first to do this, but the savings in malpractice issues alone makes it more than worth the effort.