UPDATED in 2022: AWHONN’s Staffing Standards
AWHONN’s Standards for Professional Registered Nurse Staffing for Perinatal Units provides health care leaders with a vetted tool to justify the measures needed to reach appropriate nursing levels that ensure safe and appropriate staffing to promote high-quality care and the best possible outcomes.
Within this resource, you will find the tools you need to get started with defining and implementing standardized registered nurse staffing practices by using:
- Detailed background and rationale for standard registered nurse-to-patient ratios, based on recommendations and publications by professional and regulatory associations and the AWHONN member survey
- Updated tables included registered nurse to patient ratios across the spectrum of care for hospitalized pregnant and postpartum patients and their newborns, as well as expanded supportive rationale statements
- NEW: Detailed appendices with sample acuity grids, contingency staffing plans, overcapacity trigger grid, and examples of disaster planning
Review our Staffing Standards Executive Summary or download our FAQs about the updated standards today.
An Introduction to the AWHONN Staffing Standards
This essential resource benefits those who are responsible for ensuring that adequate registered nurse staffing is budgeted for and resourced.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The AWHONN Standards for Professional Registered Nurse Staffing for Perinatal Units were developed by the AWHONN Nurse Staffing Task Force, including member experts selected for their clinical practice, management, and research expertise related to perinatal nurse staffing.
AWHONN Nurse Staffing Task Force
- Cheryl K. Roth, PhD, WHNP-BC, RNC-OB, RNFA (task force co-chair)
- Kathleen Rice Simpson, PhD, RNC, CNS-BC, FAAN (task force co-chair)
- Sandra L Hering, MSN, RNC-OB, CPHIMS
- Gay L. Landstrom, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAONL
- Audrey Lyndon, PhD, RNC, FAAN
- Janice M. Tinsley, MN, RNC-OB
- Julie Zimmerman, MSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM
AWHONN Nurse Leader
- Catherine M. Hill, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC: Senior Director of Nursing Education, Research, and Practice
AWHONN is grateful to the AWHONN Board of Directors for their review of the Standards for Professional Registered Nurse Staffing for Perinatal Units.
