title: The development of a heuristic-based excel scheduling support system for nurses.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop a nurse-self-made scheduling support system based on the heuristic approach. A Pediatric ICU unit, staffed with 35 nurses, was taken as the case in this study. Nurses' preferred scheduling principles were surveyed. The Excel VBA was used to develop the support system by an informatics nurse. The system was composed of five components: personal scheduling request setting, auto-scheduling, shift modification, report generating and inquiry. The scheduling results were widely accepted by the nurses and the time to plan a monthly schedule was reduced from 4-5 hours to 30 minutes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, ROC.
authors.forename: Shih-Tsu
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Shin-Huey
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Wung
authors.forename: Polun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013624:Taiwan