I thought some of you may be interested in exactly what I did with the
numbers that I collected from all of you related to the proposal I have
written for adding Lactation Services at my hospital.  (And since some have
asked, no I have not asked for this position for myself, but for two staff
nurses on the perinatal unit).

At first glance the data appears to be in a normal "bell" shaped curve, but
is not exactly a normal distribution.  The mean, median, and mode were all
0.7 FTEs per 1000 births.  However, that was not at all what I wanted.  I
wanted MORE!  So instead of presenting the data as the average was 0.7 FTEs,
I ranked the data as percentile--with 0.7 being the 50th percentile, and 1.7
FTEs as being the 100th percentile.  The institution where I work puts a LOT
on emphasis on the management team (of which I am a part) to
benchmark..."compare yourselves to the best of the best."  So I picked the
75th percentile as a goal for our institution.  (Maybe not quite the "best
of the best"--but I "wickedly" manipulated the numbers to get the result
that I wanted).  The 75th percentile mark was ~1.2 FTEs per 1000 births.  My
hospital is currently at about 1200 births per year.  Therefore, at the 75th
percentile we should have 1.4 FTEs (which is one person working 8-hour days
seven days a week).  That is what I have asked for.  The paperwork is
written and the proposal has been submitted.  I'll let you all know what
happens.

Thanks again to all of you who have helped, and encouraged me in this
project!!!!!!!!!

Renece Waller-Wise
Dothan, AL

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