self scheduling question

crb613, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2006

Right now we are trying to start self scheduling ...so I don't really know how it works.We are on set schedules & I work every other weekend, which is Work Friday, Sat. & Sun....off Mon & Tue...Work Wed & Thur...Off Fri, Sat & Sun. I work nights so the 1st one off you sleep :uhoh3: then cram everything else into the 2nd day.

TexasPediRN · Oct 31, 2006

I've been working at my new job for 2 months now and I love self scheduling.

I've also noticed that most people realize when days are short/overstaffed, and will either move themselves or switch a day with someone else. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the charge nurse to make sure all days are adequately staffed. If they find something wrong, a sticky is placed on the schedule and it does not get typed until it is fixed.

We have no rules re: Fridays or Mondays. Our weekends are once ever 8 (have a weekend crew then each full time RN does 1 weekend to have adequate staffing on the weekends. ) Weekends are assigned. We can request 4 days off per schedule (every 4 weeks). The days you request off kind of mean you cannot work at all those days, but you may be willing to switch for another day that you did not request off if needed.

Ours is first come, first serve with who schedules first. Some people are extremly flexible and dont mind picking up the leftover days needed, and others have school/children/other jobs and schedule theirs ASAP when the new schedule comes out.

We did have one incident about 3 weeks ago where people were not signing up for a certain Friday, and our NM took over and redid everyones schedules. Enough said. Nobody likes having their schedule redone and I think from here on out, we wont have any problems. If we do, the NM will being doing the schedules.

Hope that helped answer some of your questions!

-Meghan

Insurance RN · Oct 31, 2006

At my previous job we did self scheduling. We were all expected to work 3 Mondays and 3 Fridays in a 6 week period. We had a volunteeer committee of staff nurses that did the schedule, if you did not sign up for the required Mondays or Fridays, the committee always had the option to change your schedule to meet tihe requirements. The committee did not have to notify you that they were changing your schedule. We also alternated when people could sign up, one schedule, people with last names that started with the letter A-K signed up first, then people with last names that started with L-Z could sign up 3 days later, the next schedule this alternated. This seem to work very well, very few people did not sign up for their required shifts.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Oct 31, 2006

we have several issues with self scheduling not working well and causes grief. how many mondays and fridays are you required to work? what if someone does not follow our present guideline of three mondays or fridays? how many days can you request off? how do you decide who fills out the schedule first? thanks in advance for any input or reply.

self scheduling is great, but it does require some rules, and someone with the authority to enforce them.

our rules:

we get 9 holidays per year, and we work every other holiday. i already know i have tg off, work christmas, ny off, work mlk day, etc. i know exactly what holidays i have to work next year and the year after, for as long as i keep this job. if you "forget" to sign up for your holidays, managment signs you up.

our schedule goes for 6 weeks. we're required to work two weekends and 3 mondays and 3 fridays.

no one takes vacation between thanksgiving and new year's. you are required to work your regular number of hours the week of a major holiday. (no, you can't "stack your days" to have a week off at christmas!)

you can "stack your days" to take a week off any non-holiday time of the year, though!

you can request off four days during the six weeks. any more than that, and management feels free to ignore your requests. generally, though, if you follow the scheduling guidelines, no one messes with your schedule except for things like everyone wanting saturday the 19th off for a co-worker's wedding.

the staff is divided into three groups. this time "a" group has first dibs on the schedule, "b" group fills in after them and "c" group is last. next time "b" group goes first, "c" second and "a" is last. managment decides how many nurses are needed each day on each shift, and opens that many slots. once those slots are full, you cannot sign up for that day, so you have to make up your hours on other days.

after the schedule comes out, there's some lively shift trading going on!

hope this helps!

firetopaz · Oct 31, 2006

thanks for everyone's input. alternating who fills out the schedule is great but for those who work every weekend, if they are the last to fill out the schedule they will get screwed. I mean they seem to have to work fri- sat-sun-mon 12 hours or those who work every third weekend will be messed up- having to work fri then the weekend or weekend then a monday. It never really seems fair to the last one signing up.

military spouse · Oct 31, 2006

I loved self-scheduling. We had a blank schedule that listed everybody's names down the left side of the paper with the dates across the top. Days had a schedule and nights had a schedule. Everybody worked 12s. The schedule sat out for a couple of weeks and people put a D (for days) on the days they wanted to work (on their line). Full-time worked 4 weekend days a month, but I can't remember what the requirements were for PT and per-diem. When it was time to process the schedule that everybody had listed their days, one person was required to type it into an official schedule. Per-diem couldn't be moved, only eliminated on their day. Full-time usually wasn't moved because they worked more days and some liked to knock out 3 12s in a row and other divided them. If there were too many or too few people on any given day, PT was usually bounced around. After the schedule was typed, it was approved by mgt (a signature) and then put out for everybody to make copies. We didn't seem to have probs with Mon/Fri. Everybody seemed to have different needs/wants and it seemed to work out most months with few changes required. We did have a day staff member complete the days schedule and nights did nights. This seemed to work because we all new each other atleast a bit and people generally knew if somebody liked to do all their shifts in a row or not. Also, some liked to work every Sat instead of every-other-weekend.

MIA-RN1, RN · Nov 1, 2006

we have self schedule.

We have to do four weeks at a time. We are required to do four weekend shifts, and one of those has to be a sat/sun back to back. We have to do at least one Friday per schedule if we are day or eve, and nights has to get at least one Monday. We can request up to six priority days (full time, not sure how many part time) and order them from 1 to 6 in terms of what we want off most.

On weeks with holidays, we can either take off an extra day and get holiday pay for it, or save the holiday day and work all our normal shifts. The holiday day needs to be used within 30 days of the original holiday.

We have to work every other holiday.

the schedule is due on the day posted with no exceptions. Then the scheduler works her magic and hardly any of us get our times changed or rearranged.

We have to sign up for call time the day the new schedule is posted, usually 8 hours for the block of time. Then a week later we have to sign up for 4 more hours of call.

HappyNurse2005, RN · Nov 6, 2006

We do not do self scheduling where I am, from what I hear, it's because there are too many nurses-75, i think? (labor and delivery) though we can make requests

Where I used to work had self scheduling and I loved it!! (we also didn't employ 75 nurses either, though!)

it worked like this:

manager would print out a blank schedule, a 4 week block. everyone's names down the side, days of the week across the top, in a grid fashion. so beside your name, you had 28 small blocks (ya know, for each of the days in the 4 weeks)

this was placed out the first week of a schedule (4 weeks before the blank one we are filling out is to start)

we each filled in what we would like to work, following our guidelines. ya know, every other weekend. no friday or monday requirements. could also write in R for request off . after one week, the manager picked up the schedule and put in what everyone asked for, just how they put it. if you didn't write anything, you were blank.

that was then put out like that the next week. across the bottom of the schedule it showed for each day the # of nurses signed up for 7a-3p, 3p-7p, 7p-11p and 11p-7a for ex 7664. we would each look at this and see where the deficiencies were. (we knew how many nurses we were expected to have each shift). you would then move some of your days around accordingly. at end of week 2, this schedule would get picked up and the changes input.

then, week 3 this would be out again, for last revisions. then picked up and final cut made. you would never be made to work on a day you wrote R, but otherwise, you may get moved around a bit, though it really didn't happen that often, b/c people are good about filling in holes. no one wants to work short.

then, any spots still remaining open were posted, and you could sign up for overtime then.

it reallly worked well. b/c people would scrutinize what others scheduled themselves, so if you didnt do your weekends, people would notice and talk!