The ANA Principles for Nurse Staffing, updated in 2012, were developed to support optimal nurse staffing that enhances the delivery of safe, quality care. These principles were designed to accommodate the dynamics of any given healthcare and practice situations and address the elements of these dynamics that must be considered when developing staffing plans. Grounded in the substantive and growing body of evidence that demonstrates the link between adequate nurse staffing and better patient outcomes, these principles, like this 2013 publication, address the complexities of the decision-making and development of processes and policies needed to improve nurse staffing. The checklist at the end of this publication, which will assist any RN involved in nurse staffing decisionmaking, is based on those principles.