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Asia-Pacific Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning

SEAL 1998: Simulated Evolution and Learning pp 187–194Cite as

A Hybrid Tabu Search Algorithm for the Nurse Rostering Problem

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1585))

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of nurse rostering in Belgian hospitals. This is a highly constrained real world problem that was (until the results of this research were applied) tackled manually. The problem basically concerns the assignment of duties to a set of people with different qualifications, work regulations and preferences.

Constraint programming and linear programming techniques can produce feasible solutions for this problem. However, the reality in Belgian hospitals forced us to use heuristics to deal with the over constrained schedules. An important reason for this decision is the calculation time, which the users prefer to reduce. The algorithms presented in this paper are a commercial nurse rostering product developed for the Belgian hospital market, entitled Plane.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Edmund Burke & Patrick De Causmaecker

  2. KaHo St.-Lieven, Procestechnieken en Bedrijfsbeleid, Gebr. Desmetstraat 1, 9000, Gent, Belgium

    Greet Vanden Berghe

Authors
  1. Edmund Burke
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  2. Patrick De Causmaecker
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  3. Greet Vanden Berghe
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University College, UNSW Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 2600

    Bob McKay , Xin Yao  & Charles S. Newton ,  & 

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1, Kusung-dong, Yusung-gu, Taejon-shi, 305-701, Korea

    Jong-Hwan Kim

  3. Department of Information Electronics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan

    Takeshi Furuhashi

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cite this paper

Burke, E., De Causmaecker, P., Vanden Berghe, G. (1999). A Hybrid Tabu Search Algorithm for the Nurse Rostering Problem. In: McKay, B., Yao, X., Newton, C.S., Kim, JH., Furuhashi, T. (eds) Simulated Evolution and Learning. SEAL 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1585. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48873-1_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48873-1_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65907-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48873-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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