Estimating nursing staff requirement in an emergency department of a general training hospital: Application of Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN)

Introduction: Health human resources have a significant role in delivering healthcare services to population. Health planners and policy makers should guarantee that adequate number of workforce with required competences is at place in the right time. This study was conducted to estimate the required number of nursing staff for an emergency department of a general training hospital in Qazvin, Iran in 2016.Methods: This was a descriptive study carried out in an emergency department of a general hospital in Qazvin in 2016. Workload Indicators of Staffing Need method was used to assess the required number of nursing staff using activity analysis along with utilization and workload measures based on collected data through direct observation, interview and document review.Results: Study results revealed that in a study department, there was a need for 63 nursing staff while regarding to 55 number of available workforce, a significant shortage has been proved. In addition, work pressure was calculated to be 0.87 depicting a moderate burden of workload on current nursing staff.Conclusion: Shortage of health manpower especially in emergency departments causes serious problems regarding to proper service provision for care recipients. To this issue, application of a logical scientific method for estimating required number of human resources in hospitals and making decisions on its basis would be beneficial for the whole health system.