Self Scheduling

geekgolightly, BSN, RN · Apr 17, 2006

I am tearing my hair out trying to get my unit schedule out and make most people happy. Does any one have experience wuth self scheduling? What are the guidelines you use and how does it work out. Thank you for helping me out. Celia

at my old unit, there was a committee rather than a single person. that helps a bit with the whining and crying. in fact, i dont think there were really complaints. holidays were broken into teams, otherwise everyone was pretty understnading of changes

also, it will be rough at first, but eventually your unit will learn that self scheduling works best when you look at who has signed for what days and sign yourself up accordingly for what you know will work. like, i always chose weekends because no one else wanted to and i didnt care. people will fall into routines.

ask for their preferences... like some people enver want mondays and some people never want three days in a row. at first it seems like a nightmare, but you learn everyones preferences and it can become second nature

snowfreeze, BSN, RN · Apr 17, 2006

we have self scheduling where i work now and i had a job in the past that had self scheduling also.

it works well if you set guidelines and stick to them.

it seems to eliminate call offs because of something else scheduled such as a doctors appointment or a special kids play at school etc.

full time and part time staff use self scheduling. casual or per-diem are filled in as needed after the regular staff is scheduled.

you must work your scheduled weekends,(we work every other weekend) at least half of your scheduled time must be off-shift.

there are a pre-determined number of slots available for each shift based on a full unit. don't fill in extra spaces on a shift that is already full.

one day per schedule for each employee that will not be scheduled, this is not a pto day, just one day that you will not be scheduled. this day off is also placed on another form so the scheduling nurse knows you need that day off.

you must meet your number of hours per week.

the self schedule is available for a set number of days, you may call in and have someone else fill out your schedule if you are off during those 3 or 4 days.

the scheduling nurse then has a week to finish the schedule prior to posting it.

where i work now everyone has equal opportunity to fill out schedule, first come/first serve, this is a 32 bed telemetry unit with a 4 week schedule. at a prior job we were placed in 3 seperate groups, groups rotated so each had a turn at being first to fill out self-scheduled days, that was a 24 bed icu that had a 6 week schedule. at the icu job if you broke the self scheduling rules twice you lost priveledge to self schedule.

most of what i place on the self schedule is not changed.

mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 18, 2006

We self schedule. We are divided it groups A B and C. There is a mixture of of people in each group (some have worked there 10 years, others have worked there 10 days). It includes PCT, PCA, U/S and RN's. It rotates between the groups who gets the schedule 1st each month and among the "group" it's 1st come 1st serve. PRN get the schedule at the end and they fill in what is left. If there are still holes, then it goes up on the board and 1st come 1st serve on picking up the "extra" shifts.

There are strict guidelines, one of which you have 3 days to fill out the schedule and then it goes to the next group. On day #10 it goes to our Manager who then fills in the blanks for those that didn't bother. The other rule that is difficult to understand, you must fill in the blanks for the shift you work (ie, if you work nights - you have to fill in the blanks for nights).

There are various other "rules" such as how many hours per month must be weekends and how many holidays per year you are required to work etc....

It's a pretty easy system once you get used to the idea. The worst part is the 3 day thing because someone may not be at work several days, however you know the schedule is always put out on X day, so you usually can figure something out.

If you violate the rules of the self scheduling more than 2 times in a year period then you are taken off the group rotation and the Manager does your schedule for you for a certain period to be determined by him.

As others have said everyone falls into a routine and so it usually doesn't change schedule to schedule. Many like to work their 3 days in a row, some like it spread out throughout the week and others like to work just weekends (or have to work just weekends). Every once and awhile we get a big uproar and some "tissy" matches going on about the schedule, but it doesn't happen very often and it's usually resolved by the manager just doing the schedule himself for those that can't play nice. Next month, everyone seems to play nice again.

burn out · Apr 18, 2006

There used to be alot of material on the internet about self scheduling and where I used to work it worked out great. Rule one: management must make sure that it happens and does not let any one person try to railroad it. Second the whole group meets to set the rule up- the rules are anything they want them to i.e. each nurse must work 3 weekend shifts a month. and third a committee is formed to make up the schedule- which everyone at one point in time gets to be on the committee and chairs the committee.

This was a great learning experience in our unit, you would be surprised what you will learn about your co-workers.

Trauma Columnist · Apr 18, 2006

We use an internet-based program and that has worked well for us.

mysticalwaters1 · Apr 18, 2006

I have self scheduling and I LOVE it. We have 5 groups with part time and perdiem in the last group. The full time nurses are assigned to a group and it rotates who goes first for self scheduling. I used to get most of the time I wanted. It just fell like that. And we'd have to balance the schedule before it was sent to the manager. So the rule was if there was only 1 nurse on a day and 5 on a nother the last 2 groups to go had to move first to the lesser staff day. Sometimes just the setup would make it so it would go through several of the groups and you'd have to move. Now my problem was eventually several employees got upset. They said I'd take every mon and fri off. I only work 32 hours a week so I strive for a Fri sat sun mon off stretch which is awesome. I also am in a community band on mon nights so I try to allways take that off. It's gotten busier on my unit and mon are horrendus all of a sudden people are saying the self scheduling is not fair. They wanted a set schedule and stick to it. I really feel these coworkers of mine only started attacking this b/c they felt i had an advantage or was getting special treatment for those days. They didn't have a problem before. I'm only following self schedule. Also we lost lots of staff so that didn't help. But if I'm in the first or second group I want to strive for that time as is the right to self schedule. So there's been this uproar for a bit. And as a result almost everyone is moved. I was so annoyed about my schedule moved around even though I followed the guidline. As a result my coworkers essentially bullied me into molding my schedule for not what I truely should have been able to do, that now I'll do every other mon off and so forth JUST so my manager wouldn't move me and I could select the days. It worked she didn't move me, but then I couldn't help notice how the other coworkers now hmmm have 3 mon off in a month if not all or a good chunk of Fri? I partly blame my manager for not fully enforcing it. We have a union and that was what set it up so management states we have to balance it and work it out ourselves before sent to the manager. Which is a bunch of garbage. It's to let us bicker and deal with it. It's gotten so out of hand on this unit with everything I'm leaving it. I wouldn't even bother trying to balance it. The last full time scheduler would be in charge of balancing the numbers out and asking down the line who would move. I stopped because people where bickering too much and not wanting to mold it. Also there was issues where the full time would schedule and there would be say 5 nurses one night and 3 the other the perdiem is suppose to only fill in the holes with what their schedule permits. So the perdiem would put themselves on the 5 nurse day to make 6. That's not suppose to happen. As a result b/c management would rather move the full time and keep the perdiem to get staffing rather then cancel the perdiem and not have staffing on the other day. Then again you did have full time people filling the schedule out after perdiems did. So it can be extremely messy if the rules aren't followed and enforced.

weirdRN, RN · Apr 18, 2006

At our nursing home, Our Nurse manager fills in the schedule a month in advance. She takes all the requests from the full and part time folks and then she fills in with perdeim. It has been this way for about a year.

You would think that it would eliminate call-offs and such but it doesn't. And a good number of the nurses still complaing of unfairness or favoritism in it.

I personally like it. I am able to look at my schedule and say okay I ahve this or that going on and I want to work these shifts.