They form part of a methodology for health boards to determine on an annual basis what the establishment should be for each nursing setting.iThere are currently tools for the following nursing settings: Adult inpatient, neonatal, SCAMPS (paediatrics), clinical nurse specialist/community children's and specialist community nurse, mental health, small wards, maternity, emergency medicine/medicine, peri-operative and professional judgement
For areas where one of the 12 staffing tools currently exit, the Bill will make it explicit that health boards are expected to:
apply the common staffing method (further details of this can be found in the next section);
use the output from the tools along with professional judgement, local context and quality measures to underpin and inform decisions about staffing requirements;
make sure a consistent approach is taken to identification and lessening of risk, take account of appropriate clinical advice and consider whether services can be redesigned;
ensure staff are properly trained to apply the common staffing method and tools, engage with the process and understand the decisions made in relation to staffing decisions;
monitor and report on how they have achieved all the above and provide assurance regarding safe and effective staffing.