Table 1 Stages in the application of the WISN method
Stages | Description |
|---|---|
1st stage—definition of the unit, sector, and professional category | Choice of unit and sector in which the study will be performed according to the adequate profile for the study, as well as the professional categories for which the staffing need will be calculated |
2nd stage—calculation of available working time | Available working time was calculated by multiplying the weekly workload by the number of weeks, subtracting absences (vacation and holidays, sick leave, and training) |
3rd stage—definition of components of workload | Consisted of defining the most important work activities on the medical schedule [8, 9] divided into: health activities—performed by all the members of a professional category, identifying the work’s specificity, and generally recorded; support activities—those that complement the health activities, performed by all members of a professional category and generally not recorded; additional activities—complement the health activities, performed by some members of a professional category and whose statistics are not regularly recorded |
4th stage—establishment of work standards | Identification of average time for the workload components, based on the service standard, category allowance standard (CAS), and individual allowance standard (IAS) |
5th stage—establishment of standard workloads | Amount of work in a health service component that a health worker can perform in 1 year |
6th stage—calculation of allowance factors | In this stage, we calculated the number of workers needed to perform the support activities, based on the CAS and IAS, which were converted to a category allowance factor (CAF) and individual allowance factor (IAF) |
7th stage—staffing need based on the method | We determined the staffing need, based on WISN, to cover the health activities and support activities, calculated as the staffing need for the health activities, multiplied by the CAF and added to the IAF |
8th stage—application and interpretation of data by the WISN method | Based on the two indicators furnished by the method, namely, the difference between the number of workers available in the unit and the necessary number and the ratio between these two values, called the WISN index. The latter, when close to one (~ 1.0), represents equilibrium between the available staff and the staffing demand to conduct the health unit’s workload; when greater than one (> 1.0) it shows a surplus in relation to the workload, and when less than one (< 1.0) it indicates that the current number of workers is insufficient to deal with the health unit’s workload |