Automating the Self-Scheduling Process of Nurses in Swedish Healthcare : A Pilot Study

• Hospital wards need to be staffed by nurses round the clock, resultingin irregular working hours for many nurses. Over the years, thenurses' influence on the scheduling have been increased in order toimprove their working conditions. In Sweden it is common to apply a kindof self-scheduling where each nurse individually proposes a schedule,and then the final schedule is determined through informalnegotiations between the nurses. This kind of self-scheduling is verytime-consuming and does often lead to conflicts.We present a pilot study which aims at determining if it is possibleto create an optimisation tool that automatically delivers a usableschedule based on the schedules proposed by the nurses. The study isperformed at a typical Swedish nursing ward, for which we havedeveloped a mathematical model and delivered schedules. The results ofthis study are very promising.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik -- Beräkningsmatematik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics -- Computational Mathematics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

nurse scheduling

integer linear programming

Optimization, systems theory

Optimeringslära, systemteori

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)