One of the most challenging aspects of a nurse manager's job is to accurately project the personnel budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Budget preparation requires knowledge of previous and future trends in care delivery, market information to predict changes in services offered, and unit productivity measures.The inclusive median salary for registered nurses is $26.00 per hour. Last year your department had a working budget of 98,892 total staff hours. Assume that the budgeted nursing care hours and pay rate is the basis used in the following questions.The hospital is attempting to reduce length of stay, so patient days are expected to decrease by 2%. Projected budget hours will be 98% of previous budget hours. The new total working budget hours will be:
