title: An approach to the generalized nurse scheduling problem--generation of a declarative program to represent institution-specific knowledge.
abstract: An approach to the nurse scheduling problem is presented. The critical problem in nurse scheduling in a hospital is how to determine the day-to-day shift assignments of each nurse for a specified period in a way that satisfies the given requirements as much as possible, where the requirements differ greatly depending on the hospital. We present a method for constructing an agency-independent core procedure which can be tailored to the peculiar requirements of an individual hospital. As a basis, a formal analysis of the problem was performed, and a general scheduling procedure was established. Based on the method, a software system which produces a scheduling program for a given institution was developed. A declarative program that represents institution-specific information is generated through an interview with the user and incorporated into the general procedure. Some of the programming technicalities and an application of the system are also presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Information Science, Faculty of Medical Engineering, Suzuka University of Medical Science and Technology, Mie, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okada
mesh_terms: D006757:Hospital Units / Q000458:organization & administration; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010562:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling Information Systems; D012984:Software