Benchmarking nurse staffing levels: the development of a nationwide feedback tool

Abstract

Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04724.x Title. Benchmarking nurse staffing levels: the development of a nationwide feedback tool. Aim. This paper is a report of a study to develop a methodology that corrects nurse staffing for nursing care intensity in a way that allows nationwide benchmarking of nurse staffing data. Background. Although nurse workload measurement systems are recognized to be informative in nurse staffing decisions, they are rarely used. When these systems are used, however, it is only possible to compare units within hospitals, because cur-rently available instruments are not standardized for comparisons beyond hospital boundaries. The Belgian Nursing Minimum Dataset (B-NMDS) contains uniformly measured data about the intensity of nursing care and nurse staffing levels for all hospitals in Belgium. Method. We conducted a retrospective multilevel analysis of the B-NMDS for th