title: Automating the self-scheduling process of nurses in Swedish healthcare: a pilot study.
abstract: Hospital wards need to be staffed by nurses round the clock, resulting in irregular working hours for many nurses. Over the years, the nurses' influence on the scheduling has been increased in order to improve their working conditions. In Sweden it is common to apply a kind of self-scheduling where each nurse individually proposes a schedule, and then the final schedule is determined through informal negotiations between the nurses. This kind of self-scheduling is very time-consuming and does often lead to conflicts. We present a pilot study which aims at determining if it is possible to create an optimisation tool that automatically delivers a usable schedule based on the schedules proposed by the nurses. The study is performed at a typical Swedish nursing ward, for which we have developed a mathematical model and delivered schedules. The results of this study are very promising and suggest continued work along these lines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Linköping University, Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden. elron@mai.liu.se
authors.forename: Elina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rönnberg
authors.forename: Torbjörn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Larsson
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001331:Automation; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011382:Programming, Linear; D013548:Sweden; D016526:Workload
references.citation: Scand J Caring Sci. 2000;14(2):97-104
references.pmid: 12035282
references.citation: J Nurs Manag. 2005 Jul;13(4):363-71
references.pmid: 15946176
references.citation: J Nurs Manag. 2007 Jan;15(1):72-7
references.pmid: 17207010
references.citation: J Adv Nurs. 1994 Mar;19(3):558-65
references.pmid: 8014317