Nurse staffing
Workforce and Leadership
Definition. Nurse staffing refers to the number, skill mix and deployment of nurses relative to patient needs.
Explanation
Aiken and colleagues showed that each additional patient per nurse was associated with higher mortality, burnout and job dissatisfaction (Aiken et al., 2002). Staffing is therefore both a workforce and a patient safety issue.
Methods for setting staffing include fixed ratios, acuity-based tools and professional judgement.
Related concepts
Missed nursing care Burnout Health workforce Adverse event
References
Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Sloane, D. M., Sochalski, J., & Silber, J. H. (2002). Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. JAMA, 288(16), 1987–1993. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.16.1987
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Nurse staffing. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/nurse-staffing/
Articles that discuss this concept
4 articles on The Health Topics mention this concept. Most relevant first.