How to propose self scheduling to Nurse Manager?

[Notca67]

Hello!

I'm an ADN RN that currently works on a Neuro Cardiac Unit at a rural hospital on the night shift. I've been on my unit for 18 months, and most of the RNs on my shift most are new grads or have a few years of experience. Our schedule works on a 12 hour shift rotation from 7-7.

As a Nursing Assistant I worked at a much larger Urban Medical Center in the float pool, and all the units there did self scheduling for the Nursing Assistants and RNs. When I was hired my manager indicated that within 6 months we would be moving to self scheduling, after that point I heard that another unit had a bad experience with it. Its been 18 months and I haven't heard anything about it from my manager.

Working on nights can be tough if your days aren't spread out in a convenient way, since most of us have to switch between working during the night and getting back to a regular sleep schedule so we can enjoy being up during the day with our families. Self scheduling really would help with this, I'm sure I don't need to say anymore about the benefits of self scheduling.

My manager is a very reasonable person and I think she might be open to self scheduling if I show her how it works using google docs and how everyone can indicate what days they'd like to work using an open flow-sheet through google docs. From my experience at the last hospital I worked at it's pretty straight forward. At the bottom of each column there is a tally of how many people are on for that given night, each Nurse will be instructed of the minimum amount of nurses that is needed on each shift. If everyone wants to work X night but no one wants to work Y night, then who stays on X night will be based on seniority or other factors such as people who are currently enrolled in BSN programs who have a school schedule they have to plan around.. The final schedule will still be determined by the Nurse Manager, but self scheduling is a way for each nurse to indicate what the best schedule for each pay period would be for them. In my experience at the last hospital I worked at sometimes changes had to be made, but most of the days that people wanted to be on where what people got.

I've spoken with my co workers and everyone seems to be for the idea, I think doing a trial on night shift could be a good way for her to work out the kinks in self scheduling. She's a very reasonable person, but I don't want to step on her toes.

How should I go about proposing this to her? Should I ask her about self scheduling and try to set up a time with her to show her how a google spreadsheet would work? I'd also have to be prepared to answer how scheduling conflicts would be resolved in this situation. Obviously I want to be diplomatic about this, is it appropriate for a floor nurse to go to his/her Nurse Manager about this? Honestly I love my co workers, I love my manager and I love my floor but the schedule has been rough. I think everyone would be happy with a change.

I know that self scheduling didn't work out on the other unit because people became upset about not getting the days they wanted. All of my co workers on nights are very reasonable, and we understand how potential conflicts would be resolved based on seniority. I'm sure everyone would prefer a system where you get to be on 90% of the days that you want vs a system where your manager schedules you for whatever days you are needed without input from the individual.

So to reiterate I'm just looking for some suggestions on how I could propose self scheduling to my manager in a diplomatic way, and what materials I should come prepared with.

Thanks!

[klone, MSN, RN]

Obviously I want to be diplomatic about this, is it appropriate for a floor nurse to go to his/her Nurse Manager about this? Honestly I love my co workers, I love my manager and I love my floor but the schedule has been rough. I think everyone would be happy with a change.

Of course it's appropriate! I can almost guarantee that your manager does NOT love doing the schedule and would probably love to be rid of that responsibility. If she is as reasonable as you say she is, then she will not feel like you are stepping on her toes.

My recommendation is to set up a meeting with the manager and one or two of your night shift coworkers - she will be more likely to give it a chance if she knows that most/all of the night shift staff are on board.

[smartassmommy]

Show the NM how self scheduling benefits the Unit. He/she may have to go to upper management to make it happen so provide plenty of high quality ammunition.

[jrt4]

I thought I already responded by I guess not!

I think its important to just have a chat with your nurse manager. Do you have a unit council or some sort of shared governance? It might be good to take it to that group as well.

I would recommend that you offer to balance the schedule for the manager after "self scheduling" has happened. This shows the manager that you are willing to deal with the disputes that come up between your peers because it will inevitably happen.

I also think its important for the staff to create some ground rules because everyone likes the idea of self scheduling until it doesn't go their way (in my experience). Some suggestions I would have...

-require everyone to sign up for X number of Mondays and Fridays. We required 2 mondays and 2 fridays for a 6 weeks schedule at a previous job.

-make it very clear how many weekends everyone has to work. We used "R" to indicate that we really can't work a shift but we limited it to 6 "R"s per schedule.

-The scheduler should keep track of who they have to move or any "R" that is denied.

-The scheduling balancing should be done by a front line staff member...this is the staffs schedule and they should take responsibility for it.

I hope this helps!

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I have always welcomed staff suggestions, especially if they help to solve a problem. My DON and I (I was a charge nurse at the time) were trying to figure out scheduling for the unit. No matter how we arranged it, it seemed that there were always two days in every four-week period when we were short staffed. A staff nurse came to us with a suggestion that gave each nurse every other weekend off (previously we had split weekends, with each nurse getting either Saturday or Sunday off), and the weekend was in conjunction with three other days off. The staff suggestion did a much better job of covering the unit than anything that we had come up with, and it wound up being so popular that I pitched it to other managers for their own staffs. Call-offs went down, and people were more willing to work overtime when we needed it.