NURS 6221 Week 3 Staffing Plan Example

Course	NURS 6221 Managing Human Resources
Week	Week 3
Paper type	Staffing plan
Length	About 590 words, 5 pages
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Walden University
Program	Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for NURS 6221 Week 3

Staffing Plan for a 24-Bed Progressive Care Unit

Student Name

College of Nursing, Walden University

NURS 6221: Managing Human Resources

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingAssumptions come before the grid, because every number in the grid depends on them.

Staffing Plan for a 24-Bed Progressive Care Unit

Assumptions Register

Table 1

Assumptions Behind the Plan

Assumption	Value	Source	Date
Average daily census	22 (range 17 to 24; highest Monday to Wednesday)	Twelve months of midnight census, admissions office	Last fiscal year
Acuity measure	Unit acuity tool, levels 1 to 4; level 4 patients need a 1:2 ratio	Unit acuity policy	Current
Planned non-productive time	12% of paid hours (vacation, education, sick leave)	Payroll history	Last fiscal year
Target nursing hours per patient day	About 10 at full census, including the charge nurse	Hospital budget office	Current budget
Shift length	12 hours, day 0700 to 1900 and night 1900 to 0700	Unit scheduling policy	Current

Staffing Grid

Table 2

Staff per Shift by Census Band

Census band	Shift	Registered nurses (with patients)	Patient care technicians	Charge nurse (no assignment)	Unit secretary
15 to 17	Day	5	1	1	1
15 to 17	Night	5	1	1	0
18 to 20	Day	6	2	1	1
18 to 20	Night	6	2	1	0
21 to 24	Day	7	2	1	1
21 to 24	Night	7	2	1	1 (1900 to 2300 only)

At full census the grid gives 7 registered nurses per shift for 24 patients, a ratio of roughly 1 to 3.4; any nurse caring for a level 4 patient takes no more than two patients in total. Across a day, that is 7.0 registered nurse hours, 2.0 technician hours and 1.0 charge nurse hours per patient day, matching the budgeted target of about 10.

Skill Mix at the Upper Bands

Moving from the middle band to the top band adds a registered nurse rather than a third technician. The patients who fill the unit's last beds are usually new admissions from the emergency department or transfers from intensive care, and they need admission assessments, titration of cardiac medications and frequent reassessment, all of which require licensed staff. A technician would help with direct care but could not take on the work that is actually added. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses' healthy work environment standards treat appropriate staffing as matching nurses' competencies to patients' needs, not simply filling positions (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses [AACN], 2016). Getting this right matters: at one academic medical center, analysis of close to 200,000 admissions linked every shift staffed well under the registered nurse target to added mortality risk, and found the same for shifts with unusually heavy patient turnover (Needleman et al., 2011).

What this page is doingThe mix changes for a stated clinical reason at the band where the added patients change.

Sensitivity

The unit's budgeted registered nurse full-time equivalents (FTEs), 38.4, follow from the top-band grid: 7 nurses on each of two shifts plus a charge nurse around the clock comes to 70,080 hours a year, divided by 1,830 productive hours per FTE at 12% non-productive time. Table 3 shows how that requirement moves if assumptions change.

Table 3

Effect of Changed Assumptions on Required Registered Nurse FTEs

Scenario	Change	Required RN FTEs	Difference from budget
Base case	As planned	38.3	About 0
Higher non-productive time	15% instead of 12%	39.6	+1.3
Higher acuity	Four level 4 patients on average at full census, adding one nurse per shift	43.1	+4.8
Lower census	Average census in the middle band most days	33.5	-4.8

Acuity is the assumption the plan is most sensitive to, followed by census. Non-productive time moves the requirement less, but it is the easiest to underestimate, since sick leave rises when staff are stretched. The plan will be reviewed each quarter against actual census, acuity and leave, and benchmarked against similar units through the hospital's national nursing quality database (Montalvo, 2007).

References

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. (2016). AACN standards for establishing and sustaining healthy work environments: A journey to excellence (2nd ed.).

Montalvo, I. (2007). The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI). OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(3), Manuscript 2. https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol12No03Man02

Needleman, J., Buerhaus, P., Pankratz, V. S., Leibson, C. L., Stevens, S. R., & Harris, M. (2011). Nurse staffing and inpatient hospital mortality. New England Journal of Medicine, 364(11), 1037-1045. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1001025

What the NURS 6221 Week 3 instructions ask for

Week 3 of NURS 6221 usually asks for a staffing plan for a unit. You list assumptions with sources, build a staffing grid by census and shift, explain skill mix and test how the plan changes when inputs change. Faculty want the reasoning visible, so a grid without assumptions cannot be evaluated. Cite staffing principles and budgeting sources in APA 7. If your section assigns a ratio, apply it and note where it constrains the grid. A sensitivity table shows the plan's resilience. Nonproductive time must be included. A clear layout puts the assumptions register first as a table with input, value and source, then the grid by census band and shift, then a short skill mix section and the sensitivity table. Write a sentence under each table telling the reader what it shows.

How the NURS 6221 Week 3 example is put together

An assumptions register opens the plan: expected census range by day of week, the acuity measure in use, planned non-productive time for vacation, education and sick leave, and a target for hours per patient day. Each assumption carries a source and a date. The staffing grid follows, one row per census band and one column per shift, showing registered nurses, patient care technicians, a charge nurse without an assignment, and a unit secretary. A short narrative explains the mix at the upper bands, where the plan adds a registered nurse instead of a technician because the patients added need assessments only licensed staff can perform. AACN's appropriate staffing standard is named in that section. A sensitivity table closes the plan.

NURS 6221 Week 3 rubric: what earns full marks

Reviewers of a staffing plan set out to rebuild its reasoning, and a grid shown without the assumptions beneath it can only be accepted or refused, never evaluated. The weightiest element in many versions asks whether hours per patient day, recomputed from the grid, land where the plan claims; a gap there is found quickly. Skill mix carries separate credit, and a grid in which a technician could fill any registered nurse's slot shows the author never considered it. Grounding in a nursing standard is expected, and the appropriate staffing standard gives the plan a principle that a finance partner and a charge nurse would both recognize. Sensitivity analysis earns where it names the one assumption to watch. Grids with unlabeled roles cost presentation points.

NURS 6221 Week 3 help: mistakes that cost marks

Staffing plans lose the most when the grid appears without assumptions. List them first. Another common gap is ignoring nonproductive time. Add vacation and education hours. Writers also treat skill mix as fixed. Explain when to change it. Avoid a single census figure. Show bands. Add a sensitivity table. Check the arithmetic. Close with the assumption most likely to change. Show one worked calculation, from census and hours per patient day to nurses per shift, so the reader can follow the method once. Label the charge nurse separately from direct care positions.

Get a NURS 6221 Week 3 example written to your instructions

Supply the unit type, any census or workload figures the section hands out, plus the prompt and rubric, and the staffing plan is built from exactly those inputs. The first custom one is free, finished within 24 to 48 hours. Scheduling-system exports play no part, because the unit was invented.

More NURS 6221 papers and MSN samples

NURS 6221 Week 3 questions, answered

Why list assumptions before the staffing grid?

Because the grid is only as defensible as what it rests on. Someone questioning coverage months later can see the census range, acuity measure and leave allowance the plan assumed, and judge whether they were reasonable at the time. Placing them first also makes the grid checkable, since hours per patient day can be recomputed straight from the inputs.

What if the section assigns a ratio?

Then the grid follows it, and the narrative explains any band where the assigned ratio and the acuity measure point in different directions. The sample staffs to a target for hours per patient day plus a workload measure, both labeled as assumptions, because its prompt left the method open. Either approach works when the basis is stated and applied consistently across bands.

What is a sensitivity table doing in a staffing plan?

Showing which assumption matters most. The sample varies acuity, census and leave one at a time and reports how the grid would change. Acuity moves staffing the most, so the plan names it as the figure the manager watches weekly. Graders often read this section as evidence that the author understood where the plan is weakest.

Where can I find a free NURS 6221 Week 3 sample paper?

The progressive care staffing plan is printed here with the assumptions register, the grid, skill mix at high census and the sensitivity table.

What goes in the assumptions register in NURS 6221 Week 3?

Census, acuity, the hours per patient day target, shift length, nonproductive time and whether the charge nurse takes patients, each with a source.