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Healthcare Management vocabulary · Staffing and Workforce

Staffing

Meaning in healthcare management, with examples

/ˈstæfɪŋ/nounCore term

In healthcare management, staffing means: The number and type of staff working in a hospital, ward or shift, and the work of making sure there are enough of them with the right skills.

In Turkish: personel durumu, personel planlaması, kadro

How it is used

Very common in phrases such as staffing levels, safe staffing, staffing shortages and nurse staffing. Managers check staffing before each shift. The adjectives 'understaffed' and 'short-staffed' describe a ward without enough people.

Example sentences

  1. Staffing on the night shift is below the safe level again.

  2. We review staffing every morning at the bed meeting.

Common collocations

  • staffing levels
  • safe staffing
  • staffing shortage
  • nurse staffing
  • staffing plan
  • workforce planningPlanning how many staff, with which skills, an organisation will need in the future, and how it will recruit, train and keep them.
  • skill mixThe combination of staff with different roles, grades and levels of experience in a team, such as the ratio of registered nurses to care assistants.
  • shiftA fixed period of work, such as day, evening or night, that staff take in turns so that a hospital is covered around the clock.
  • agency staffTemporary workers supplied by a staffing agency to fill gaps in a hospital's own workforce, usually at a higher cost per hour.
  • FTEShort for full-time equivalent: a unit that adds up working hours, so that one full-time worker counts as 1.0 and two half-time workers also make 1.0.

More terms: Staffing and Workforce

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.