Original Research: A Real ‘Voice’ or ‘Lip Service’? Experiences of Staff Nurses Who Have Served on Staffing Committees

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Nurse staffing committees offer a means for improving nurse staffing and nursing work environments in hospital settings by giving direct care nurses opportunities to contribute to staffing decision-making. These committees may be mandated by state law, as is the case currently in nine U.S. states, yet little is known about the experiences of staff nurses who have served on them. Purpose and design: This qualitative descriptive study was conducted to explore the experiences of direct care nurses who have served on nurse staffing committees, and to better understand how such committees operate. Methods: Participants were recruited by sharing information about the study through online nursing organization platforms, hospital nurse leadership, state chapters of national nursing organizations, social media, and nonconfidential nursing email lists. A total of 14 nurses from five U.S. states that have had nurse staffing committee legislation in place for at least three years were interviewed between April and October 2022. Results: Four themes were identified from the data—a “well-valued” committee versus one with “locked away” potential: committee value; “who benefits”: staffing committee beneficiaries; “not just the numbers”: defining adequate staffing; and “constantly pushing”: committee members' persistence. Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the importance of actualizing staff nurse autonomy within nurse staffing committees—and invite further exploration into how staff nurses' perspectives can be better valued by nursing and nonnursing hospital leadership. Nurse staffing committees generally recommend staffing-related policies and practices that address the needs of patients and nurses, and work to find areas of compromise between nursing and hospital entities. But to be effective, the state laws that govern nurse staffing committees should be enforceable and evaluable, while committee practices should contribute to positive patient, nurse, and organizational outcomes; otherwise, they're just another form of paying lip service to change.