The nurse manager is calculating minutes of nursing care in order to d

QUESTION

The nurse manager is calculating minutes of nursing care in order to determine the nurse-patient staffing ratio needed for the next shift.

The table to be used for this calculation is as follows:
Patient Classification Rating Number of Nursing Hours
1 2
2 2.5
3 3
4 3.5
5 4
6 4.5
The number of patients according to the identified table is as follows:
Patient Classification Rating Number of Patients
1 5
2 8
3 3
4 2
5 1
6 1
How many nurses will be needed to staff the care area for the next 8-hour shift? (Round to the nearest whole number.)

ANSWER:

Correct Answer: 7

The manager should multiply the number of patients by the number of nursing hours to determine the number of nurses needed for the next 8-hour shift. For this situation, the calculation would be as follows:
Patient Classification Rating Number of Patients Number of Nursing Hours Total Nursing Hours Needed
1 5 2 10
2 8 2.5 20
3 3 3 9
4 2 3.5 7
5 1 4 4
6 1 4.5 4.5
The total number of nursing hours is 54.5. Next divide this number by 8 (or 54.5/8) = 6.8125. The nurse manager needs to have seven nurses scheduled for the next shift.