Nursing Budget Paper

Roussel, Thomas and Harris (2016) states “Nurse leaders have financial responsibility, are accountable for managing the nursing budget, and make decisions about how to adjust the nursing budget based on organizational priorities” (p. 168). A unit or department sets a budget to control the cost the organization is spending. The budget is also related to patient safety and quality of care provided. Quality of care begins with patient values and patient satisfaction. “What has value to one individual may not have value to another.” It is important for staff to find out the wants and needs of patients. Also, as a health care provider, nursing staff needs to make sure that the patient is a part of the decision-making process related to his or her …show more content…
A nurse manager should know or have readily available the patient workload, the average acuity of patients, the average census on the unit, and the hours of care per patient day. A nurse manager should be able to obtain the forecasted number of staff that will be needed for the next fiscal year. Finkler & McHugh (2008) discussed how a critical step for the nurse manager is gathering information that will allow for the budgeting process. The nurse manager should also be able to quickly obtain reports of the current expenses relating to the department’s current budget (Baker & Baker, 2014).
A cost that the nurse manager has no control over is fixed expenses. Fixed expenses include depreciated equipment, salaries, benefits, utilities, interest on loans or bonds, and taxes (Roussel, Thomas & Harris, 2016). Variable costs are also an expense that nurse managers have no control over, for example: laundering of linens, meals for patients, and supplies needed. Managers have little control over fixed and variable expenses. Variable expenses are based on patient census, physician orders, clinical specialty, and patient