Help! I sit on a new scheduling commitee that is pondering self-scheduling. There is so much negativity in the unit that believe it won't work. I need help to prove them wrong. If anyone has self-scheduling and is willing to share their guidelines I would be most grateful. We really need this to keep our staff.
1. How many beds do you have?
2. How many nurses play into the total mix?
3. How many different shifts do you have (we have 5)
4. Does senority play a factor in who gets first dibs?
5. What constitues a weekend?
6. Do people have to rotate shifts?
7. Who gets to sign up first for the schedule.
8. What region is the hospital that you work in?
IF there is anything else, please add. The more information that I have the better chance that we have to get this off the ground instead of being stuck in meetings talking about it. If you want to PM this info that is ok too.
3. how many different shifts do you have (we have 5)
most nurses do 7a-7p or 7p-7a, some 7-3, some 3-11, some 11-7, some do 7a-11p, one does 3p-7a (16h shifts are by choice)
4. does senority play a factor in who gets first dibs?
no. there is a blank schedule left out for one week. it is a 4 week block on the schedule. you fill in what you would like. the manager puts in schedule exactly like its filled out. then its put back out, and we can all see where the holes are, and are expected to shift our days around to fill in holes. any days that we absolutely need off are marked, and won't be messed with.
5. what constitues a weekend?
for pay? friday 7p-sunday at 7p
6. do people have to rotate shifts?
we are supposed to do every other weekend. but no, we don't rotate nights/days
7. who gets to sign up first for the schedule.
whoever gets to teh book first, but it doesn't matter, b/c they don't know who signed up first. the manager attempts to be fair to everyone. and really, in 8 months there, i've never gotten screwed on my schedule. we have part time/full time/flex time nurses, so the schedule is always filled in.
3. how many different shifts do you have (we have 5)
8s and 12s- days, evening and nights or a combination of those
4. does senority play a factor in who gets first dibs?
no- and frankly it shouldn't. if your unit works together as a team then self scheduling is ideal. placing the "i've been here longer than you" idea in someone's mind will stir up controversy and hard feelings. i have seen that happen- not a good scene!
5. what constitues a weekend?
friday night, sat and sun.
6. do people have to rotate shifts?
no- however, people do at will. again, i don't think it should be mandatory. there are some nurses that cannot function at night because of various issues, sleeping problems, inability to sleep during the day, etc., and forcing them to work on a shift at night is not in the best interest of the patient or the unit and the same is true for other shifts.
myself- i won't schedule more than 2 days in a row because i will become too dehydrated and "burned" from the shifts that i am on. our unit has a strict policy on drinking water or beverages on the unit. the only place we are allowed to drink water or beverages is in our break room which is usually 2 nursing stations and 2 halls down away from where i am placed and that is where the restroom is as well. as with many hospitals, nurses don't get a lunch or break, but i simply cannot continue that pattern for several days in a row. i am thin and an athelete so no drinks, no restroom, no food for hours at a time, day after day is not something my body can tolerate any more.
7. who gets to sign up first for the schedule.
on our unit, the prn signs first because most prn's do not work more than 1-2 days a week. then full and part-time. the paper schedule is posted and we all look at the schedule as the weeks go by and try to not overload one day and leave other days empty. (schedules are 6 week periods- 2 months in advance).
8. what region is the hospital that you work in?
virginia
self-scheduling is a privelege and if your unit views it as such it will work. i would not work at a facility unless it had self-scheduling. it is nice when you have children.
It really is surprising how many different ways that self-scheduling can be administered. The powers that be are pushing hard to have some benefit for senority in place. I could see this getting to be a very ugly issue.
36 bed unit, 2 - 12hr shifts, so 2 schedules. ~70 nurses, 35 for each schedule (day and night).
The blank schedule is put out weeks in advance to fill in preferences, without regard to what others write in, so it's not 'first come, first serve'.
No regard to seniority, that would run off your junior staff to ALWAYS be subordinate to choice of days. Rarely, seniority can have some pull, but it is the exception, not the rule.
You must pencil in your share of weekends, and you can enter an X for days you want to work, a * for scheduled extra shifts, a V for vacation, T for training days (ACLS, PALS, etc), R for request that day off, etc.
You are allowed to be somewhat liberal with R's but you have to leave some days blank (don't want to work that day, not critical if you do). This request schedule is picked up about 3 weeks before the new schedule comes out and the scheduler (one of our staff) goes over it and smooths out the edges, trying to give everybody what they want, but moving some Xs (days wanted to be scheduled) into some blanks (days not specifically requested off) in order to make it balance out.
With a large number of workers, it normally does 'balance' out with only minor changes to the request.
About a week before the schedule comes out, a prelim schedule is posted so that any desparate last minute changes can be made.
Somebody almost always gets a less than optimum schedule, but that is taken into account for the next few schedules, so it balances out.
I would never work for a non-self schedule unit. I like being able to change my work to meet my life instead of the other way around. I guess there are advantages to a set schedule that I can plan out a year in advance, but that makes me a hostage to my schedule. I'd rather my work schedule be subordinate to my life!
Besides, there's nothing like scheduling s/m/t one week and th/f/s the next to have 8 days off in a row without taking vacation a time or two a year.
4. Seniority doesn't play a role. For days requested off, staff with a higher commitment (40 hours vs 32 hours per week) get first dibs.
5. Sat and Sun, any shift
6. Not unless they choose to.
7. Whoever gets it first. It goes out for the staff and stays out a week or so. We sign up when we can.
8. Georgia
We are required to work every other weekend and two Mondays and two Fridays a month. If we need a weekend off, we have to find someone to switch. This system is very casual compared to other posts here, but it works well for us. We have a very cohesive team though. We sign up for what we want and the managers take it, enter it into the computer and see what the numbers look like. If shifts are over or under staffed a lot, they highlight the changes that need to be made, put it back out, and everyone tries to change it to what they want that works for the schedule. If we don't get shifts covered, the managers change the schedule to cover. Everyone prefers to have a say-so in their schedule, so we all work hard to cover shifts ourselves.
I should add that the way we completed the blank schedule gave no indication of which nurse had completed the desired days early in the self-scheduling process.
Jan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Dave A A
Mac A A
Tina A A A
That is an idea of what the nurses completed. Simply putting an A for AM shift on desired days. There was no way to know who completed their portion at what point. I think that eliminated the stress of getting to the schedule. Also, our sat out for probably 2 weeks or so before the real schedule was completed.
2. how many nurses play into the total mix? day shift: 1:4 in obs room; 1 charge; 1:6 rest of floor for total of 6 nurses. night shift: 1:4 in obs room; 1:6 rest of floor; charge has assignment for total of 5 nurses at night.
3. how many different shifts do you have (we have 5) mostly 12 hour shifts, but a couple people work 8 hours middle shift. this will usually just mean charge for night shift has no pt. assignment until 11p.
4. does senority play a factor in who gets first dibs? no.
5. what constitues a weekend? fri-sat. we are required to work one sunday per month and every other fri-sat. although, we are usually getting an extra fri or sat off every month because we are fully staffed with weekenders.
6. do people have to rotate shifts? about once every 6 weeks if needed at all - staffing is really good right now.
7. who gets to sign up first for the schedule. no order. schedule has a due date.
8. what region is the hospital that you work in? lehigh valley pa.
the ss works out really well for us unless one particular manager, does it. then she pretty much ignores what everyone puts down and rotates people day-night-off day. however, she usually doesn't do the schedule.
our unit is fully staffed at the moment, so that makes the self scheduler pretty workable. i was a tech when there were staffing problems with the nurses and i remember hearing a lot of grumbling then 'cause ppl weren't getting what they want.
2. How many nurses play into the total mix? my shift 7, we are understaffed at the present and work 4 days every other week.
3. How many different shifts do you have (we have 5) 2 days or nights
4. Does senority play a factor in who gets first dibs? OH YES
5. What constitues a weekend? By the looks of my schedule Fri, sat and sund
6. Do people have to rotate shifts? no
7. Who gets to sign up first for the schedule. A blank schedule is posted, we all mark days we would LIKE to get off
8. What region is the hospital that you work in south west
I would love self scheduling. As I said above we work 4 12's every other week, and it seems we all work 2 weekends per 6 weeks. As bad as I think this, if I could schedule how many days I get off between I would be so much happier. If you work 4 in a row you should get at least 3 off, not one or two. I will work any weekend, I will trade to help someone out. I am 22, no kids, don't have that much planned. Interested in how this goes. I am trying to relocate to a place that self schedules now. To be honest I would work every weekend if I could have off 4 days in a row. Hope it goes well for you.
HappyNurse2005, RN
1,640 Posts
1. how many beds do you have?
27
2. how many nurses play into the total mix?
31
3. how many different shifts do you have (we have 5)
most nurses do 7a-7p or 7p-7a, some 7-3, some 3-11, some 11-7, some do 7a-11p, one does 3p-7a (16h shifts are by choice)
4. does senority play a factor in who gets first dibs?
no. there is a blank schedule left out for one week. it is a 4 week block on the schedule. you fill in what you would like. the manager puts in schedule exactly like its filled out. then its put back out, and we can all see where the holes are, and are expected to shift our days around to fill in holes. any days that we absolutely need off are marked, and won't be messed with.
5. what constitues a weekend?
for pay? friday 7p-sunday at 7p
6. do people have to rotate shifts?
we are supposed to do every other weekend. but no, we don't rotate nights/days
7. who gets to sign up first for the schedule.
whoever gets to teh book first, but it doesn't matter, b/c they don't know who signed up first. the manager attempts to be fair to everyone. and really, in 8 months there, i've never gotten screwed on my schedule. we have part time/full time/flex time nurses, so the schedule is always filled in.
8. what region is the hospital that you work in?
virginia