Optimising Nurse Staffing at the Emergency Department of Ålesund Sykehus

Abstract

This report summarises the initiatives undertaken in the Emergency Department (ED) of Ålesund sykehus to enhance patient care and theworkday for nurses. The objective was two-fold and involved addressing nurse understaffing and optimising rostering efficiency. We analysed care demand and nurse capacity and identified a misalignment. Based on this, we designed a new shift schedule, which was then used as input together with legal requirements and staff wishes to make an optimal roster. The ED leader devised a roster plan from the optimal roster, which was then further adjusted and implemented. The performance of the realised rosters in 2022 and 2023 appears to be very similar. Based solely on the data, it is difficult to attribute the entire coping of the increase in workload to the initiatives taken, but they have certainly contributed. The ED leader’s experience is that the introduction of the newshifts has helped managing the workload in the afternoon and evening, and that the situation would have been considerably worse without the implemented measures.