ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Public Health Policy

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1510931

A Delphi-Based Framework for Optimizing Nurse Staffing in Chinese Hospitals

Provisionally accepted
Waner WANGWaner WANG1,2Gege LiGege Li3Jiangfeng PuJiangfeng Pu2Shen TiemeiShen Tiemei1Zhanghao XieZhanghao Xie4Lifang ChenLifang Chen1Hong CuiHong Cui5Peng XuPeng Xu1*Huigen HuangHuigen Huang1*
  • 1Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
  • 2Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China
  • 3Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 4Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 5He You International Hospital Group, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

Objective: This study aimed to develop a hospital nursing human resource allocation evaluation system under the Healthy China initiative.Aims: The system offers data-driven staffing recommendations to enhance patient safety, nursing quality, and healthcare sustainability. It supports managers in efficient resource allocation based on workload, patient needs, and nursing competencies. Goals include reducing nurse workload, boosting job satisfaction, and lowering turnover for better patient outcomes.Methods: Through literature review and expert interviews, we built an evaluation index pool and questionnaire. Twenty-six nursing management experts were selected for their extensive experience. Indicator deletion used a variation coefficient > 0.25 and expert consensus. Two Delphi rounds screened indexes, with weights calculated via the analytic hierarchy process.Results: The system comprises 3 primary, 7 secondary, and 25 tertiary indexes.Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence and recommendations for nursing management in China, presenting the first Delphi - AHP - based staffing system. It offers a new framework meeting China's healthcare needs and advancing nursing resource management. We recommend hospitals regularly use the system and suggest future research on its long - term impacts.Impact: The indicators, derived from studies and expert opinions, offer practical insights for management decisions.

Keywords: Nursing, Management, Dephi Method, Hierarchical analysis, human resource

Received: 14 Oct 2024; Accepted: 28 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 WANG, Li, Pu, Tiemei, Xie, Chen, Cui, Xu and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Peng Xu, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
Huigen Huang, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material