Self Rostering

redshiloh · Sep 9, 2003

Is self rostering the same as self scheduling? God help you that's a terrible schedule to try and uphold!

uk_nurse · Sep 9, 2003

i think it is the same thing....writing down what shifts you want to work each week. the ward manager always has the final say and at the moment it is not working. too many people on one day and not enough on other days. its a nightmare at times

redshiloh · Sep 9, 2003

OOH YEAH!!! Know and hate the system.

THEORETiCALLY nurses are supposed to write themselves in where they see a need---never happens. The unit manager is therefore tasked to 'balance' the schedule thereby becoming 'THE BIG BAD WOLF"

Does anyone out there on a fairly large unit have a scheduling system that WORKS?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 9, 2003

Working three 14 hour shifts in a row is cruel.

I worked in a unit where we self-scheduled and it seemed to work real well with me, but that was because myself and another charge nurse always scheduled around each other so they had charge coverage, and we were rarely bumped around.

The problem came from people not signing up to work weekends, or 10 people signing up to work Thursdays and two of us on Fridays.

For the most part people got what they wanted with a day moved here and there which wasn't bad.

Plus we were allowed to leave notes on a master request sheet that stated our needs, i.e. for me it was no Mondays (bowling night) and no more than two 12-hour shifts in a row.

uk_nurse · Sep 9, 2003

i work 3 weekends out of 4 and do 1 week of nights a month which is what we should all do on our ward. I'm sure there is a protocol of some kind saying 3 14 hrs shifts together is not allowed and neither is doing a 14 hr shift the following day after doing 3 nights in a row. Does any one know if there is some kind of 'law' on this?

purplemania, BSN, RN · Sep 9, 2003

14 hr shifts are torture to the body and a safety risk for the patient. I would not do it. We do 12 hr shifts with 2 weekends per month required (weekends required also for prn staff and regular part-time). ED has some weird stuff that is 4/8/12 hr in order to overlap for busy times. Over 40 hr is time and half pay so it is highly discouraged, although some units work 3 shifts one week and 4 the next if they are short-staffed. Remember the sweat shops and the Industrial Revolution??? 14 hr shifts are not safe!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 9, 2003

Originally posted by redshiloh
OOH YEAH!!! Know and hate the system.
THEORETiCALLY nurses are supposed to write themselves in where they see a need---never happens. The unit manager is therefore tasked to 'balance' the schedule thereby becoming 'THE BIG BAD WOLF"
Does anyone out there on a fairly large unit have a scheduling system that WORKS?

We do self scheduling, and it works. I work in a 20 bed ICU that has 90-some nurses. The schedule comes out months ahead of time for "first cut", and everyone writes in their schedule. The rules say everyone is supposed to work 4 weekend shifts out of 8, but there's no hard and fast rule about how you work them. You can theoretically work all Saturdays and no Sundays (or vice versa). You're supposed to work so many "major holidays" and so many "minor holidays", and dialysis-trained nurses are supposed to schedule themselves so there are at least 2 on every shift.

The "second cut" comes out a few weeks later, and you take a look at the "numbers" on the bottom line and move yourself around to meet parameters.

Then the assistant nurse managers juggle the numbers to make them come out right. You're told right up front to expect two changes to your schedule, but try to call and discuss it with you if they make more changes than that. I get moved a bit because I'm trained for dialysis and also do charge -- but usually it's a fairly workable system.

The only thing I have noticed is that if the ANM likes you, you can get away without working your four weekend shifts, and if she doesn't, you can't. This is a HUGE improvement over the way it used to be -- one particular ANM (we have 3 -- 1 for each shift) used to demonstrate her regard for you in the way she wrote your schedule.

laurainaz · Sep 10, 2003

We do self scheduling and it works out great. Each nurse works every 3rd weekend (1 a month) and then we fill in our other days around that. We do 3 12's a week, no problems so far.

bettyboop · Sep 10, 2003

Were I work now as well as before we self roster. In my previous post we 3x14 hr shifts as well, the way they get round 42 hrs is knock of break times. Although you were supposed to write your shifts by the time i actually saw the rota most were filled. Even did Fri, Sat, Sun, one week and the next was on Mon, Tue, Wed. All nights I like nights but that stretch was the last straw! Handed my notice in the morning after. Never looked back. Were I am now we also self roster and i mean self roster fill in days off shift prefered. If you have somthing special on a particular day or week we have a book were you write in red special days. Occasionally theres a hic up but 99% of the time duty rosters excellent

suggest a book!! and as we do write in red birthdays days of required it really can work great

Bettyboop

uk_nurse · Sep 13, 2003

We had a 'request book' but we didn't always get what we wrote down, its our ward manager who did off duty. We are also short staffed so this causes problems. I have only been qualified 6 months and already i'm fed up of the off duty and the shifts we have to do. Unfortunately our ward manager is not to obliging in changing our shifts. Her main concern is that the shift is covered no matter what our off duty is.