Self-scheduling for hospital nurses: an attempt and its difficulties

Area of Science:

• Nursing Management
• Healthcare Operations
• Human Resources in Healthcare

Background:

• Self-scheduling (self-rostering) initiatives aim to improve hospital nursing environments.
• It aligns with desirable employment practices for nurse recruitment and retention.
• Enhanced work-life balance for nurses can positively impact patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot a self-scheduling system for hospital nurses.
• To evaluate the perceived benefits and implementation challenges of nurse self-scheduling.
• To assess the impact on nursing staff and nurse managers.

Main Methods:

• A self-scheduling program was implemented on a single nursing unit for one year.
• Nurse perceptions were assessed via an informal questionnaire.
• Nurse manager's workload, change requests, and sick calls were quantitatively measured.

Main Results:

• Nurses reported better time control and improved patient care.
• A decrease in schedule change requests and nurse manager annoyance was observed.
• The program faltered due to non-adherence to rules by nursing staff.

Conclusions:

• Self-scheduling offers potential advantages for both nurses and nurse managers.
• Successful implementation requires balancing individual nurse preferences with unit-wide benefits.
• This pilot offers insights for future self-scheduling system implementations.