Final answer:
City Urgent Care's staffing requirement for nurses in the triage area is calculated at 8.4 Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) based on the need for two nurses per shift across three 8-hour overlapping shifts to cover a 12-hour period. This figure would generally be rounded up to 9 FTEs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is inquiring about how many Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) are required to ensure that City Urgent Care has coverage in their triage area with two nurses on duty at all times, with each nurse working an 8-hour shift, from 10:00AM to 10:00PM. Calculation of FTEs involves understanding shift overlaps and total coverage hours.
Let's calculate the number of FTEs needed:
- City Urgent Care requires 12 hours of coverage (from 10:00AM to 10:00PM).
- Each nurse works an 8-hour shift.
- Two nurses are needed at all times.
Since a nurse works for 8 hours, we need three shifts to cover the entire 12 hours because the first shift can work 10:00AM to 6:00PM, the second can cover 2:00PM to 10:00PM, and to cover the hours from 6:00PM back to 2:00PM (which aren't covered by the first two), the third shift is required. Each of these shifts requires two nurses, for a total of six nurses working each day.
To find the number of FTEs, we divide the total hours needed by the hours in a full-time workweek. In most cases, a full FTE is considered to be 40 hours per week. Since this is a continuous need every day, we calculate:
- Total daily nurse hours needed: 6 nurses x 8 hours = 48 hours.
- Total weekly nurse hours needed: 48 hours x 7 days = 336 hours.
- Number of FTEs: 336 hours / 40 hours per FTE = 8.4 FTEs.
Therefore, City Urgent Care will need 8.4 FTEs to meet the staffing requirements for their triage area. However, since we can't have a fraction of a person working, this would likely be rounded up to 9 FTEs to ensure adequate coverage.