Self Scheduling. Does it exist?

Sunflowerinsc, ADN, RN · Jul 3, 2007

If you all wouldn't mind, I'm looking for feedback on how your floor/unit handles scheduling. Usually there are guidelines like so many off-shifts, weekends, holidays, etc but what beyond that? Do you put in your schedule or does your manager? If you write your own schedule, is it honored or are changes made? If changes are made, does your manager let you know ahead of time or try and negotiate with you (work an extra NOC shift and have a weekend off). Thanks for your input.

We pretty much do self schedule. Every other week-end is standard and most staff stick to the schedule of "their weekend" but are open to trading a day with someone who has something going on (wedding, ect) on their week-end. Some staff like to work 3 12's in a row and others don't but some how it generally works out. As a prn person now ,I sorta wait until others have put down their schedule and fill in where a shortage is. Another RN who is prn puts down the 3 days in a row in the middle of the week so sometimes she gets bumped off as she isn't needed then and is not open to work other shifts. The self schedule is honored by the manager as long as all shifts are covered, and she'll ask if she can change you to another one that is short . We all try to work together so not many changes need to be made. Of course the bottom line is that each shift is covered.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 3, 2007

We used to self-schedle and everyone liked it except there were too many holes and too many times with extra staffing. Instead of management saying "ok, we're going to make changes sometimes to your schedule" they now treat us like we're preschoolers and tell us when we're going to work, like it or not. We also have alternate weekend requirements, but sometimes people will trade days if it works better.

I think when we went to Management Scheduling, they should have honored the patterns people ALREADY had, if they had ones and they worked out, but instead they're telling us that they will establish patterns FOR us. Gee, thanks.

Anyway, self scheduling WILL work, IF people are willing to accomodate changes for holes and overflows, and that should be rotated around so it's not always the same people being bumped. Depends on the size of your unit, and how many are f/t vs p/t and per diem, but it absolutely can work!

crysobrn · Jul 3, 2007

I work in a smaller OB unit. We use self scheduling and it works pretty well for us. We work every third weekend and rotate holidays. Once we started self scheduling we did have to implement "rules" so that the schedules were balances and fair. For example each nurse must work a minimum number of fridays and mondays because many people were working Just tues wed thurs and then we were left with holes on the weekends.

I think that they also self schedule in our ccu dept.

It can and does work for us. Our director preapproves vacations and they are placed in a book so we can look ahead. Because we have a smaller unit we can only have one or two nurses per shift gone on a certain day. But we are all pretty flexible and willing to trade or adjust if necessary. After we all sign up for our days the director takes the schedule and makes sure it is balanced (we also look at it ourselves first to see what we can do) if at this point it is not balanced then she will move us around if needed, but she does generally call first.

It seems like it would take a lot of time BUT it has taken the burden of scheduling off of one person and makes everyone feel like they can have more control. If you don't like your schedule for some reason, like working three 12's in a row then you have no one to be mad at but yourself LOL

Kerrigan 06 · Jul 3, 2007

We also "self-schedule." Officially, we are supposed to work 6 weekend shifts per 6-week schedule, but we also have a few weekend nurses so most people get by with a minimum of 4-5. (Fridays also count as a weekend shift for nights.) I'm new at my facility, so I've only been through the entire signup process about three times. Changes are made where necessary, of course. In my experience, they are limited to adjusting 1-3 shifts per 6-week schedule, but I have not yet been consulted on these changes before they were made.

fultzymom · Jul 3, 2007

We have self-scheduling like you mentioned with the guidelines. Everyone works every other weekend (unless there are weekend contingent to do it) and usually every other holiday. Other than thay, they work when they want to. It works out pretty well.

ptadvocate81 · Jul 3, 2007

I work in ICU and we have self scheduling. We are required to work two weekend days a month. Therefore, if you want to work Sat, Sun one week, then you are done. Our managers do have to make some changes at times, but generally the charge nurses are great about approaching you to move around if need be before it is turned in. I think that it works great. We are also required to work two holidays a year, but the holidays that we have off, we are suppose to work the eve. That really stinks because you don't get paid holiday pay AND you can never leave town. Something must change with that, but it's really my only beef at this time.

MadisonsMomRN, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2007

We have self scheduling at our facility too. Its new and its working out great!

queenjean · Jul 3, 2007

For those of you who have experienced self scheduling (good or bad) in the past, how big were your floors, in terms of staff?

EmmaG, RN · Jul 3, 2007

I worked a unit with self-scheduling and loved it.

The staff was divided into two groups. On alternating schedules each group would have a turn for a set number of days, going first to put in their schedules. Then the other would put in their schedule and fill in the holes. The manager would tweak it if necessary, but generally everyone pretty much got what they wanted and rarely were changes made. The manager always notified us if she needed to adjust what we'd asked to work.

Each staff person knew what was required of them regarding their schedule (weekends, holidays, etc.) and we worked together quite well to make certain the unit was staffed appropriately.

If there were still holes in the staffing after everyone had entered their schedules, the manager posted 'needs' and staff would fill in the slots as needed (and were allowed to work in 4 hour increments). As an incentive to do so, we were paid extra for this (I forget how much; $3 or $4 an hour, I think).

All in all, it worked out pretty good. We were rarely understaffed on any given shift, rarely got pulled or needed pulled staff to help us out.

NikkiRN_BSN · Jul 3, 2007

The hospital I saw it done at relied in part on pulling nurses to other units to provide coverage. Self scheduling meant that on Mondays and Fridays it was guaranteed mandatory OT for some nurses from the NOCs because those were the two day shifts that most people wanted off. Once the schedule was signed off by the unit staff it went to scheduling. Scheduling would generally have to do some fine tuning before it would be finalized. A unit could lose their self scheduling privilege by making too many mistake. Like not having enough people on or someone not scheduling enough days.

Generally these are units with between 8-10 nurses. NOCs does not self schedule. The scheduling department deals with their stuff,

MIA-RN1, RN · Jul 4, 2007

we have self-scheduling w/ the rules (e/o weekend, e/o holiday) and it works okay but the bottom line is what is good for the unit. The perdiems and the full time and part times all put their requests in at the same time and the scheduler does what she does. It works about 85% of the time. Lots of times the ft staff get a day or two changed from what they put down to work. And even tho I repeatedly request not to work more than 2 12h shifts in a row it still happens that I have got scheduled for 3 (for the best of the unit). :uhoh3: And last year I had to work labor day, thanksgiving day, christmas day, new year's eve and was scheduled this past memorial day but switched w/ someone.

I would be a better fan of self-scheduling if I saw it used appropriately: I think that the ft and pt should get first 'dibs' and the perdiems should be used to fill in the gaps. Likely we would then have less on-call time. (12 - 16 hours mandatory a month) because there would be fewer holes.