The study, funded by the Nursing Secretariat of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, found the NRT is also a vehicle for staff development and it provides excellent orientation and integrates nurses into the organization in a manner that recognizes their unique abilities and employment needs.

Dr. Andrea Baumann, Principle Co-Investigator and Co-director of NHSRU, says the NRT proved to be a more efficient means of providing appropriate staff coverage and has facilitated the discontinuation of agency use.

"The NRT supports the efficient allocation of staff and is considered to provide safer, more productive, and higher quality staff than agencies. The use of a nursing resource team provides a way for an organization and its employees to work together to benefit nurses and management, and ultimately improve patient care."

The implementation of the resource team at HHS was considered a success by all study participants. In contrast to traditional float pools, resource teams recognize nursing expertise, create opportunities for full-time work, and provide nurses with opportunities for professional development.

The nursing resource team at Hamilton Health Sciences:

• Provided a recruitment strategy offering full-time employment to new and experienced nurses internal and external to the organization.
• Capitalized on nursing expertise by deploying members to clinical areas where they were competent to practice and could use their specialist skills and expertise.
• Represented a "just-in-time approach" to clinical needs. It provided a flexible and adaptive mechanism for dealing with fluctuations in patient census, for covering nurse absenteeism, and reducing overtime.
• Provided a pool of skilled nurses that could be recruited into specialist nursing areas as jobs become avai
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