Abstract

In the current healthcare environment, cost control is an ongoing concern of public and private payers and of healthcare administrators. For nursing leaders in this environment, a critical task is establishing nursing as a service line and communicating its value to the organization. The work of nurses needs to be better articulated and models such as the Fundamentals of Care Framework can assist in this. Also critical is presenting what is lost for patients and the hospital through missed care and its consequences when nurse staffing is inadequate. Economic analysis has found that when the cost savings from lower length of stay, reduced adverse outcomes, reduced admissions and other benefits of adequate staffing are taken into account, adequate staffing is affordable.