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Overcome Scheduling Challenges

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Abstract

Nurse scheduling is about finding an optimal way to assign nurses to shifts and maintain the correct nurse-to-patient ratio at any given point in time at the hospital or facility. The nurse scheduling problem has been studied since at least 1969 and is a very complex problem that can be solved via algorithms. This chapter, however, will focus on solving this problem by putting the scheduling decisions in the hands of nurses and will not focus on solving it via any computer algorithms. Staffing and scheduling is not only a tiresome process but also requires nurse managers to have the right tools to predict the demand for nurses for any given shift hour. The primary responsibility of any nurse manager and chief nursing officer is to allocate the resources needed to deliver high-quality care at the right time to the right patient. Patients have different needs at various stages of their hospital stay. Maintaining a staffing ratio is a good starting point for any nurse manager but is not enough to provide high-value care to all admitted patients. Patients may range from needing minimal care on the day of their discharge to needing a dedicated nurse around the clock after a complication puts them in the ICU. The nurse manager needs new tools for creating staffing models and doing nurse scheduling and should have a way to pass on the responsibility to nurses for their own schedules. Nurse scheduling and ensuring each shift is staffed appropriately is one of the main reasons for job dissatisfaction among nurse managers. No matter how carefully the nurse manager defines the schedule criteria, there may always be holes in the schedule as it is dependent on a human element.

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  1. 1.

    Jack Needleman, Ph.D., Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N., V. Shane Pankratz, Ph.D., Cynthia L. Leibson, Ph.D., Susanna R. Stevens, M.S., and Marcelline Harris, Ph.D., R.N., New England Journal of Medicine, 2011(364):1037–1045, March 17, 2011, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1001025

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© 2018 Nidhish Dhru

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Dhru, N. (2018). Overcome Scheduling Challenges. In: Office 365 for Healthcare Professionals. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3549-2_6

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