How to Solve Nurse Scheduling Problem in Healthcare?

Most nurses have different shifts. While all shifts need a healthy recouping period, some situations require more. This is just one of many challenges that nursing managers face when creating initial schedules that are adaptable to accommodate employees’ needs while ensuring adequate patient care. In licensed practical nursing schools at the community college of nursing, you may also get a chance to learn and explore the nursing schedule with clinical courses.

Nurse scheduling problems can lead to burnout and clinical component in work. Nurse burnout is associated with mandatory overtime, in particular. Nurse leaders must create schedules after learning from nursing practice in education courses to meet staffing requirements without compromising the health of nurses and their patients.

This guide examines the adverse effects of nurse scheduling problems for nurses. It offers creative solutions to create effective and fair flexible schedules. This guide provides resources for managing workload and other issues that may arise when creating efficient and equitable plans for practical nurses in residential care facilities in a variety of health care.

What Does a Typical Nursing Schedule Look Like?

A study published in the clinical nursing journal determined that a typical schedule of newly licensed practical  nurses is 39.4 hours per week. It also found that:

• Nurses who are new to the profession prefer 12-hour shifts over eight-hour ones.
• Most nurses prefer to work a day shift over evenings and nights.
• Nearly half (45.6%) of new nurses work voluntary overtime, an average of three hours per week.

A further 13% of nurses who participated in the study also have a paid second job.

Students who want to take their careers to another level can consider enrolling in a practical nursing program near me (continuing accreditation) for a better career in nursing.

Related:- Top 7 Benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring

Avoiding Unhealthy Shift Patterns

According to the JAN study, 12% of newly graduated nurses are required to work overtime. This overtime is usually less than a weekly hour. Nurse managers face a dilemma when they plan for manual scheduling in a different variety of settings. They must often comply with federal and state regulations that require them to meet minimum advanced nursing staffing levels. However, due to a severe nursing shortage, it’s difficult to maintain these levels in health care settings.

The nursing shortage is a factor in unhealthy shift patterns in nursing homes. American Nurse describes shift patterns and manual schedules that cause vital signs & also harm nurses’ health in clinical settings.

• If you are assigned to more than three 12-hour shifts in a row, four 10-hour shifts in a row, or five eight-hour shifts consecutively in nursing clinicals.
• Rotating between days and nights in 24 clinical hours
• In long-term care facilities, working two shifts without the equivalent of at least two 12-hour standard shifts between them (except in the case of 12-hour shifts), for example, working two 8-hour shifts within 1 day.

Limiting the Number of Consecutive Shifts

Nurse managers can help nurses avoid burnout by allowing them to recover objective function and rest between shifts & by gain your experience in the scope of practice & critical thinking. Becker’s clinical site review outlined strategies for reducing consecutive shifts by nurses:

• Keep track of the number of shifts alternating between day and evening.
• Create an environment that allows the health care team to decline overtime work comfortably.
• Encourage nurses to educate themselves about the importance of sleep hygiene and the symptoms of shift-work sleep disorder.
• Promoting effective collaboration among healthcare teams is crucial in ensuring patient safety.
• Working for more than 12 hours in a row, like a double shift of 16 hours
• Working overtime in LPN weekend classes.

Avoiding Double Shifts and Excessive Consecutive Hours

Fair Labor Standards Act does not restrict the amount of time off work shifts, partly because emergencies may require nurses and other vital workers to remain on the job for prolonged periods. However, several states have enacted limits to the length of nurses’ shifts and mandatory overtime.

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Medical assistants who work excessive duration of time or double shifts can negatively impact patient care. A study published in the European Review for medical and pharmacological sciences found that errors were most common in medication administration. Anxiety, exhaustion, a more significant task, night shifts, the ratio of nurses to patients, and interruptions in workflow are among them. Researchers concluded that spending beyond half a day consecutively or 40 to 50 hours a week increased pharmaceutical mistakes in physicians.