Work Schedule Preferences and Shift Schedules of Per-Diem Nurses: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study of Online...

The paper analyses the work schedule preferences and actual shift work schedules of per-diem nurses using data from an online labour platform that allows institutions to book per-diem nurses for single shifts.

Descriptive cross-sectional study of data from a Swiss online labour platform.

Comprehensive data from a Swiss online labour platform about shift availabilities and resulting shift work for the booking period of 2022 (full sample). On the platform, healthcare providers can book per-diem nurses for single shifts based on the nurses' individual shift availability offers.

The distribution of the 2022 shift availability count per nurse has a median of 15, resulting in 12 shifts worked, with higher success rates for nurses offering more availabilities. This corresponds to a global conversion rate of 87.95%. On average, per-diem nurses are booked by three different institutions. The median time between entry of a shift availability and booking by an institution is 7.3 days, whereas the time between the booking date and the shift is on average 24.1 days.

Per-diem nurses on online labour platforms are booked in advance rather than on a short-term basis. The low number of shifts offered and worked as a per-diem nurse reveals that per-diem nurse work is more of a side job than a substitute for a permanent position. The low number of annual shifts per institution highlights the potential issue in per-diem nurse work of a lack of familiarity with institutional processes and structures.

The average lead time of 24.1 days on the platform indicates that shift managers should consider the use of per-diem nurses according to expected shift demands during shift planning instead of using them on a short-term basis. The low number of shifts worked as a per-diem nurse per institution confirms the challenges that temporary nurses face as a result of their low institution-specific work experience.

What problem did the study address? The quality of the working experience as a per-diem nurse, as well as the effectiveness of the deployment of these nurses in institutions, depends to a great extent on the patterns of work schedule preferences and the actual implementation in real work schedules in the institutions. Data from online labour platforms allow a comprehensive analysis of these patterns revealed by shift availabilities of temporary nurses and resulting patterns of actual shift work schedules based on booking information. What were the main findings? (1) Institutions book per-diem nurses more on a monthly than on a short-term basis. (2) The low number of shift availabilities annually and resulting annual shift volume reveal that per-diem nurse work is more of a side job than a substitute for a permanent position. (3) Per-diem nurses offer and are booked for a variety of shift types and not only for certain 'preferable/unpreferable' shifts. (4) On average, per-diem nurses work in an individual institution for only a low single-digit number of shifts. Where and on whom will the research have an impact? Nursing managers will learn about relevant statistics and their relevance in using online labour platforms for their shift planning. Nursing researchers will learn about the potential online labour platform data offer for analysing the characteristics, volume and patterns of per-diem nurse work.

Per-diem nurses were involved solely in the data provision process, by giving their consent to the analysis of the platform data. No participant contributions were required for the study's design, data analysis or interpretation.

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