Self Scheduling in the Operating Room

[MichelleGoetz]

Hi. I am new to this site and hoping to get some insite from units that self schedule-particular large units with multiple shifts. I work in an academic institution with 26 operating rooms and I schedule around 130 staff. Staff work 12s, 8, 10s, and we stagger shifts with staff coming in at 7, 9, 11, and 19. We really would like to move to self scheduling to improve staff satisfaction but the task seems daunting with so many different shifts and specialties On top of that staff are broken down into several different surgical specialty teams. Does anyone do this in a unit that allows more than 12 hour shifts and how does it work?

Do you include vacations in your self scheduling model also. Any input or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Welcome to AN!

First of all, have you checked with your staff as to whether they want to move to self scheduling? My OR was going to try this, until they got all of the feedback that no one wanted self scheduling. That put the brakes on that plan pretty quick.

However, had we gone ahead with it, vacations would have continued to be requested the way they are now: with the exception of Thanksgiving week, Christmas week, and Memorial Day through Labor Day, it's first come first served. The other weeks are considered "prime time" and are done by groups of people requesting during an assigned week based on seniority.

We've always been self-scheduling when it comes to signing up for call. It's the rotating shifts that are assigned.

[MichelleGoetz]

Thanks for the reply. Not all of the staff is on board, but our manager really wants to move to it as our ER who has twice the staff we do, uses this format and it works really well. They indicated the staff was resistant at first but now loves it, so we are at least going to try it. If it fails then at least we tried!

I think that is what we need to go to as far as vacation. RIght now its a free for all and it seems some people get all the vacation and others miss out if they are not planning a year in advance.

Thanks again for the input!