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Chapter 5 Findings
(nine staff in total 07.30hrs to 17.00hrs). If one of the nurses in that complement
was a clinical nurse manager they usually attended to office work and were not
clinically allocated. For the evening time (between 17.00hrs and 20.00hrs) the
roster allowed for two nurses and three healthcare assistants to be on duty. At
night time there were two nurses and one healthcare assistant and one “twilight”
healthcare assistant who worked until 12 midnight and who was not a unit staff
member but a relief staff member (there was a core group of staff who provided
this relief).
Over the four-month period of analysis it was found that nine staff came on duty
for morning report 50% of the time (62 times). Occasionally the unit had extra
staff and on one occasion 12 staff were on duty at morning report (0.8%). Eleven
staff were on duty on three occasions (2%) and 10 staff were on duty on 25
occasions (20%). There were also times when the unit was under-staffed: on 25
occasions there were eight staff on duty at morning report (20%), seven staff on
duty on five occasions (4%) and six staff on duty twice (1%). Thus the unit was
over-staffed 29 times in a 123-day period and under-staffed 32 times in the same
period (Chart 5.5).
Occurrence of Full Complement of Staff
24%
26%
50.00%
Full complement
Under the complement
Over the complement
Chart 5.5: Number of staff on duty during the four month period analysed