Implementation of a Self-Scheduling System

for Hospital Nurses: Guidelines and Pitfalls

Lotte Bailyn, Ph.D., MIT Workplace Center
Robin Collins RN, BSN, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Yang Song, BS , MIT Sloan School of Management
#WPC0019

Submitted to The Journal of Nursing Management

For information regarding the MIT Workplace Center or for additional copies of this
working paper (#WPC 0019), please email [email protected],
call (617)253-7996, or visit our website: web.mit.edu/workplacecenter
 Table of Contents

Abstract

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Assessment and Follow-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Table 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Table 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Table 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Appendix I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Appendix II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Appendix III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Appendix IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

© 2005. Lotte Bailyn, Robin Collins, Yang Song. All rights reserved. This paper is for the
reader’s personal use only. This paper may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed,
transmitted or retransmitted, performed, displayed, downloaded, or adapted in any medium
for any purpose, including without limitation, teaching purposes, without the authors’
express written permission. Permission requests should be directed to [email protected]
 Abstract
Implementation of a Self-Scheduling System for Hospital Nurses: Guidelines and Pitfalls

Aim
To describe a model of self-scheduling by hospital nurses and the difficulties involved in imple-
mentation.

Background
A self-scheduling program was implemented on one nursing floor for a year. The researchers
encountered pitfalls that are not covered in current self-scheduling research literature. A number
of modifications were made, which are detailed.

Findings
While the nurse manager relayed the directions of the self-scheduling program to the nurses,
some did not adhere to the rules of the program, which caused tension and stress for the
manager and the nurses alike. Although self-scheduling did increase morale and gave nurses
more control over their personal schedules and enhanced their ability to give good patient care,
the attempt floundered.

Conclusion
Self-scheduling can be used positively to offer nurses more control over their schedules and to
enhance patient care. But if nurses see this as an individual entitlement instead of a balance
between individual and unit benefit, everyone loses. Miscommunication of rules and lack of
adherence to self-scheduling guidelines can bring forth mixed feelings of tension and anxiety to
the nurse manager as well as the nursing staff.
Introduction
The idea of self-scheduling is not a new one and was first documented in 1963 by

Jenkinson, who initiated a self-scheduling program at St. George’s Hospital in London (Hung

2002). Most present literature on self-scheduling agrees to its benefits including some of the

following main points:

1) Empowering nursing staff and increasing their control to balance their personal and

professional lives, particularly helpful to nurses who have children or part-time

schooling

2) Increasing predictability and flexibility of the nursing schedule and at the same

time, freeing the nursing manager for other tasks

3) Enhancing the communication and interaction in the work environment to stimulate

cooperative community building

Indeed, such benefits can be built if the self-schedule is implemented correctly.

However, in some cases, unfavorable conditions might develop such as complaints of peer

pressure, favoritism and unavailability of staff (Teahan 1998). Under these circumstances one

might encounter challenges to “sell” self-scheduling to a skeptical nursing staff. As Miller

suggests, the nursing staff must participate in each aspect of the change to self-scheduling in

order to make it successful (Miller 1984).

One particular suggestion that several literature state is to make a guideline early on in

the implementation process. The best idea would be to draft a guideline at one of the first

committee meetings and have relevant short- and long-term goals developed immediately after

in order to keep the focus of the self-scheduling concept (Beltzhoover 1994). Furthermore,

implementation should not be rushed and should be explained carefully and thoroughly to the

staff.

The staff should agree to further detailed guidelines to determine the number of days the

staff has to fill in the requested shift. Also, maximum and/or consecutive shifts should be set at

this time (Phillips 1990).

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 Another possibility of self-scheduling that has been explored in recent literature is the

use of a computerized rostering system mentioned in Ball’s article “Shifting the control” (1997).

Nurses would first enter the hours they wished to work into a time rostering software system,

the computer program would then process their requested shift times and produce a ‘best-fit’

schedule, which would incorporate as many of the desired shifts as possible. The rostering

software system also rated each hour on the nursing schedule according to popularity. Nurses

who chose to work the unpopular hours were awarded with high scores. The nurses with the

highest scores were the ones least likely to have to work any unfulfilled hours in the schedule,

or the gap hours.

Before the implementation of the self-schedule, the nursing staff should attend a unit

meeting to clarify the rules and guidelines that perhaps are unfamiliar. Surveys in some self-

scheduling implementations have shown that nurses would have liked more preparation on the

topic, underlining the enormity of the cultural shift that is involved in introducing a change to

the scheduling process (Ball 1997).

To the extent possible, we followed these guidelines in our experiment.

Method
The unit consists of 70 RNs who oversee 31 total beds, of which 12 are step-down beds

that require extra patient care from the TICU nurses. The signup sheet that the nurse manager

prepares lists all the nurses down the column and 28 days across the top. In each cell there is a

letter corresponding to the shift of that nurse on that day, or whether she is on vacation or on a

day for education, jury duty, or whatever. Nurses on fixed schedules (some of the senior ones)

would always be assigned to the same times. Other nurses knew the overall pattern of their

schedule (e.g. 3 12-hour days or 2 12-hour and 2 8-hour days per week), but did not know on

which specific days these shifts would fall. There were guidelines about Fridays and

evening/night rotations, depending on seniority, based on union contract. These guidelines are

shown in Appendix I. The schedule gets posted one month in advance of the starting day. If

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nurses want to make a change they have to fill in a change request to the nurse manager who

then had to reconfigure the schedule.

Our first attempt was to duplicate this format in the self-scheduling mode. But this

turned out to be unworkable, since it was not clear when a full roster for any particular time

period was met. We tried keeping track by both addition and subtraction, but without success.

We then devised the format shown in Appendix II. Into this template, the nurse manager

entered the fixed schedules, therefore showing clearly where there are places available. In order

to give everyone a chance to sign up early, the nurses were divided into three groups, with each

group having a one-week period for sign up before the schedule was opened to the other groups.

This idea was based on a suggestion in Miller’s article on “Implementing self-scheduling”

(1984).

Findings
During the time of the self-scheduling experiment from January 4, 2004 to January 1,

2005, we closely monitored the number of change requests and sick calls, as well as the

annoyance level and hours spent on scheduling by the nurse manager. These data are shown in

Appendix III. We also received feedback and comments about the self-scheduling program and

its progress through four questionnaires that were distributed as the program went on.

The number of change requests decreased dramatically after the first month of the self-

scheduling implementation but then reverted somewhat but generally decreasing except for the

last two months in the year due to the scheduling of Thanksgiving and Christmas (see Table 1).

While the number of change requests decreased over time, the number of sick calls per

month remained relatively steady at approximately 45.

We also recorded the time the nurse manager used to make the monthly nursing

schedules. Compared to her annoyance, the time spent on the schedule decreased while her

annoyance eventually rose (taken into account the annoyance level of scheduling nurses to work

on national holidays) (see Table 2).

MIT Workplace Center 3 Working Paper #WPC0019

 Toward the end of the implementation process, the nurse manager became more

frustrated at the miscommunication between the nursing staff and herself. Several nurses did

not follow the directions laid out in the self-scheduling program, including sign-up times and

shift restrictions. Some of the nursing staff did not fully understand that self-scheduling did not

provide guaranteed times for nurses to work but rather allowed for more control and flexibility

in one’s schedule. But it could only reap these benefits if everyone followed the guidelines.

Questionnaires
Four questionnaires were handed out during the year, the first one before the experiment

started. The responses from the questionnaires guided the researchers in determining the

positive and negative sides of self-scheduling in this unit.

From these questionnaire responses, we determined the following findings (refer to

Table 3):

1) Nurses’ reported need for control and flexibility both decreased gradually as the

self-scheduling implementation progressed.

2) At the same time self-scheduling gave the nurses more time to spend with their

families as well as providing what they felt was better patient care.

In addition to the questions, comments provided by the nursing staff on the benefits and
problems of self-scheduling are useful. Here are some of the benefits that were commented on:
“I don’t like day/night rotation but love self-scheduling because it gives
me the best opportunity/chance to get a good schedule as am/pm
scheduling.”

“I really enjoyed it. I felt as though I could schedule my work around my

personal needs without filling out multiple time request forms. I felt like I
had more control. Even when my schedule wasn’t exactly what I self-
scheduled, I just figured it was changed because of needs and discussed
any conflicts with my manager. I feel it is a great moral booster and
worth the effort.”

“Hope we can keep doing the self-scheduling. I feel more in control of

my life as opposed to waiting to see what is going to be done to me.”

“Managers so much more willing to work with sudden changes – it makes

all the difference.”

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 “I enjoy the self-scheduling. It allows me to participate more with my
family since nursing requires weekends and holidays.”

“Self-scheduling works out nicely when there is a say in your schedule

and is easier to work the schedule around your family if you can put
yourself on or off certain days so you don’t have to hassle others to work
for you.”

“Better than someone making schedule; gives you options for day off and
some flexibility.”

Nearly all the nurses commented that self-scheduling offered them more flexibility at the

workplace. However some comments were more cautious, stipulating conditions on self-

scheduling and highlighting some of the problems encountered.

“Self-scheduling works well when I get the schedule I requested –

however I understand that staffing issues arise. From time to time, things
need to be changed but it definitely work well if you get the schedule you
requested.”

“I am able to schedule around planned events although many times I do

not know 2-3 months in advance what events there are unless it’s a
wedding.”

“Good: Being able to schedule days off for more events, doctors appoint-
ments, etc. without filling request forms is good – scheduling myself to
work days that fit my life (like every Friday) and not worry about
protocol. Bad: When the shift you scheduled yourself for has to change to
meet staffing needs.”

“I am able to schedule around appointments etc, but only if I know them

2-3 months in advance and if I find out after the schedule is posted, it’s
not easy or sometimes possible to get the time off.”

“I do not like the fact that others can sign up before you if you are not
scheduled to work for a while when the new sheets come out. It should be
on a rotating basis.”

“I have been able to pick the shifts/days off I want but the schedule I
choose compared to the final schedule is completely different. This is
very frustrating. I will be paying closer attention to my schedule in the
future and requesting the final schedule reflect what I request.”

Assessment and follow-up

What eventually stopped the experiment is exemplified by the last comment. Nurses

would insert their names, even though a particular time period was already full, and leave large

MIT Workplace Center 5 Working Paper #WPC0019

blocks of time without a full roster. Nurses would also sign up for consecutive day and night

shifts without realizing the consequences or sign up for more shifts than they were scheduled to

work. When the nurse manager then shifted people around in order to fulfill the staffing needs,

they became annoyed that their wishes were not honored. In the end the nurse manager stopped

the experiment.

In a follow-up two months after the experiment ended, we asked the nurses how they felt

about self-scheduling. In the 10 nurses that we questioned, we found that 7 of them were

indeed sorry that self-scheduling ended. They liked the control and freedom in their personal

lives that self-scheduling allowed. However, if a nurse was in the third and last group to sign

up for the schedule or just got back from vacation, the nurse became frustrated at the choice

selection of shifts left over. On the other hand, the nurses did acknowledge that the three groups

rotated for the sign up schedule, making the process the fairest possible.

We also asked why the nurses thought that self-scheduling did not work in this particular

case. The answers were quite interesting and varied. Some believed the only reason that self-

scheduling did not work was because it created too much work for the nurse manager. Others

believed that a few nurses were ruining self-scheduling for everyone, that is, a few nurses did

not follow the rules as they were supposed to. Furthermore, one nurse commented that the

nurses who did not follow the sign up rules thought they could get the best schedule and try to

“slide by” the nurse manager. This perception that only a few occasionally broke the rules does

not agree with what actually happened. The ending of this experiment is not because only a few

nurses were making mistakes.

To understand what happened one has to consider what underlies such an experiment. It

means bringing together the needs of the individual nurses with the needs of the unit to the

benefit of both. The data that show that both nurses’ personal lives and their patient care

improved with self-scheduling show the advantage of such an approach. But it is necessary,

also, that everyone keeps both sides – both the individual employee and the need of the unit –

continuously in mind; what has been called a dual agenda (Rapoport et al., 2002) must be

MIT Workplace Center 6 Working Paper #WPC 0019

continuously kept in the foreground. What happened here is that the needs of the unit were

ignored by the nurses who put their personal needs ahead of unit requirements. They began to

see the schedules they signed up for as an entitlement, not as one part of a joint agreement to

enhance both their lives and the functioning of the floor. And thus the experiment was stopped

and everyone lost. They lost some of the control they had over their own time, which they had

valued highly, and the benefits of self-scheduling – e.g. bringing nurses together, easing the

burden of the nurse manager, enhancing morale and patient care – were lost.

Why this happened in this case is difficult to say. Because of the pressures of the work

on this floor it was not possible to get all the nurses together to plan the experiment. The

researchers met in individual groups with some of the nurses, but this may not have been

sufficient. Also this was a large roster of nurses – more than 70 – and most successful

experiments in the literature had been done with many fewer nurses. Finally, the nurse manager

felt that perhaps the union environment made nurses more conscious of their particular duties

and hence felt that the kind of cooperation needed to make this work was beyond their duties. It

should be said, however, that the union representatives approved of the experiment.

So what have we learned? We have learned that the advantages of self-scheduling

accrue both to the nurses and to the patient care of the unit. But to make it work it requires

collective commitment to both sides of the dual agenda. Engaging such commitment in a large

unit is not easy, as this example shows. Although the nurse manager continuously inquired

about the progress and adaptation of self-scheduling throughout the experimental period via

regular emails, staff meetings, and impromptu discussions on the floor, in retrospect, we

probably should have spent more time with more of the nurses even before starting the

experiment.

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 Hours (Time) and Level
(Annoyance) Ja
n
4
Ja Fe -J
n

10
15
20
25
30
35
40

0
5
an
b
4- 1- 3
Ja Fe 1

10
12

0
2
4
6
8
Fe n b Fe
b 31 29 b
1- M -M 28
Fe Fe ar ar
b b 28
A

MIT Workplace Center

29 28 - A 27
- M
pr p
M r
ar
M
25 2
ar
27 -M 4
28 ay ay
Ap -A 23 2
r p -J 2
r2 Ju un
n
25 4
-M 20 1
M a Ju 9
ay y l1
-J
ul
23 22 8
-J A 17
ug -A u
Ju un
1 g
n 1
20
19 S 5-
S 4
ep
Table 1: Number of Change Requests

- ep

8
Time Spent
Ju Ju 12 11
l1 l1 O -
8- 7 ct O
Au 1 ct
9
Au 0-
g g N N
15 14 o ov
v
-S 7 6
ep -D
D
Se
p e e c
c
11
12 4
- 5-
Ja
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n
ct
1
t9
10
-N

Annoyance Level
No ov
v 6
7-
D
D ec
ec 4
5-
Ja
n
1

Working Paper #WPC 0019

Table 2: Time Spent on Schedule and Annoyance Level of Nurse Manager
Table 3: Nurse Response Averages Taken over the Four Questionnaires
Response level (1 = strongly disagree

I wish I had more

5
to 6 = strongly agree)

cont rol over my t ime

M y schedule f it s well
4 my personal and
f amily needs
I wish I had more
3 f lexibilit y in my
sched ule
M y current schedule
allows me t o give
2 g ood pat ient care

1
Avg Avg Avg Avg
on on on on
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

MIT Workplace Center 9 Working Paper #WPC0019

 Appendix I: Guidelines Used to Implement Self-scheduling

Scheduling Guidelines

I – Number of Nurses

Monday – Saturday nurses in charge TICU nurses staff nurses

Day and Evening 3 6 6

Night 3 6 5

Sunday

Day 3 6 6
Evening 3 6 5
Night 3 6 4

II – Fridays and Weekends

2 Fridays/month

36 hour people (3x12) up to every other weekend

40 hour people (2x8 + 2x12) every third weekend

III – Rotation

< 3 years 50% day/night rotation

3-8 years 25%
> 8 years can elect not to rotate

MIT Workplace Center 10 Working Paper #WPC0019

Appendix II: Sample Sign-up Sheet for Nurses

RNs - 4/shift week (1):______________________________________

Day 7a-3p Eve 3p-7p Eve 7p-11p Night 11p-7a
Sunday 1 Nurse X Nurse X
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____
Monday 1
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____
Tuesday 1
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____
Wednesday 1
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____
Thursday 1
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____
Friday 1
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____
Saturday 1 Nurse X Nurse X
2
3
4______________________ ______________________ ______________________ _____XXXXXXXXXX_____

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Appendix III: Data Record

Nurse Nurse manager’s

Change manager's annoyance
Schedule Dates: Posted: requests Sick calls time (hrs) (1-10=total misery)

Jan 4-Jan 31 5-Dec 38 49 4 8

Feb 1-Feb 28 2-Jan 7 48 4 8

Feb 29-Mar 27 30-Jan 27 50 3.5 10

Mar 28-Apr 24 27-Feb 20 55 2.5 4.5

Apr 25-May 22 26-Mar 27 48 1.5 6

May 23-Jun 19 23-Apr 27 52 1.5 6

Jun 20-Jul 17 21-May 12 35 2.5 6

Jul 18-Aug 14 18-Jun 10 35 3 4

Aug 15-Sep 11 16-Jul 10 54 3.5 4

Sep 12- Oct 9 13-Aug 9 22 1.5 3

Oct 10-Nov 6 10-Sep 12 41 1 3

Nov 7-Dec 4 8-Oct 12 36 3 2

Dec 5-Jan 1 5-Nov 20 61 2 3*

*Nurse Manager’s annoyance level was 10 if taken into account for scheduling around the
holiday season.

MIT Workplace Center 12 Working Paper #WPC 0019

Appendix IV: Sample Questionnaire from a Nurse

5
A
4 A

3 A
A
2

0
I am pl eased wi th my cur r ent I get ener gi zed by my j ob I wi sh I had mor e contr ol over My schedul e f i ts wel l my I wi sh I had mor e f l exi bi l i ty i n My cur r ent schedul e al l ows I am ver y sati sf i ed wi th the
schedul e my ti me per sonal and f ami l y needs my schedul e me to gi ve good pati ent car e condi ti ons of my cur r ent j ob

Quest ion

MIT Workplace Center 13 Working Paper #WPC 0019

References

Ball, J. E. (1997). “Shifting the control: Evaluation of a self-scheduling flexitime rostering

system.” European Nurse 2(2): 100-110.

Beltzhoover, M. (1994). “Self-scheduling: An innovative approach.” Nursing management(4):

81-82.

Hung, R. (2002). “A note on nurse self-scheduling.” Nursing Economics 20(1): 37-39.

Miller, M. L. (1984). “Implementing self-scheduling.” Journal of Nursing Administration 14(3):

33-36.

Phillips, H., and Brunke, L. (1990). “Self-scheduling helps nurses balance their personal &
professional lives.” RNABC News (Jul-Aug): 15-16.

Rapoport, R., Bailyn, L, Fletcher, J.K., and Pruitt, B.H. (2002). Beyond Work-Family Balance:
Advancing Gender Equity and Workplace Performance (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass).

Teahan, B. (1998). “Implementation of a self-scheduling system: a solution to more than just

schedules!” Journal of Nursing Management 6(6): 361-68.

MIT Workplace Center 14 Working Paper #WPC 0019