Scheduling Issues, What Do You Do?

[Jen2]

Hi everyone,

All of us at work decided to put together a scheduling committee to set guidelines for our dept. I was just wondering what does everyone else do as far as rotating weekends, how many can be off per shift and vacations etc. Just looking for some input to bring to a meeting we are having. What has worked/ not worked for everyone else. Any input you can give would be great. Thanks!

[GingerSue]

we had a binder with empty pages for the month and we did self-scheduling with the arrangement that each nurse works one weekend per month and was on call for one weekend per month, each weekend and day would indicate exactly how many people could be off

each nurse then self-scheduled for days off in the book

if the allotted number of nurses who could be off was full, then the would have to find another day

[Jen2]

Thanks GingerSue for that idea. We want to eventually go to self scheduling. We just need to get together and get guidelines set first, see how they work and then maybe we will be able to do that.

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

Thanks GingerSue for that idea. We want to eventually go to self scheduling. We just need to get together and get guidelines set first, see how they work and then maybe we will be able to do that.

We have tried self scheduling several times, I thought it was great but there were those nurses who refused to put themselves down for a weekend or a holiday. That makes no sense to me because as soon as the nurse manager realized they went ahead and scheduled them a weekend and or holiday and then those the nurses got upset because they didn't get off the weekend or holiday they wanted. Gees !

I hope it works out for you, I think it's a fantastic idea and I love Gingersue's suggestion. Just didn't work for us. I know we all work with some of those nurses, the primadonna's !~

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

We do self-scheduling, and I am the self-scheduling facilitator for the RNs.

I have to monitor everyone to make sure they do their weekends/shift etc.

Self-scheduling works well if everyone follows the rules - one person not doing their share can really effect everyone else! You also have to be flexible. Its too complicated here to explain how we fill in, but you usually have 4 week where you get what you want and 2 weeks where you have to be flexible. How many weekends, how much shift each nurse has to work will depend on your staffing patterns.