5 Nurse Scheduling Hacks To Save You Time

July 3, 2019

Nurse scheduling seems to be one of the biggest problems for most healthcare organizations. It’s an important part of workforce management, but it’s prone to mistakes and takes up a lot of a nurse manager’s time. Every nurse has his or her own restrictions and desired availability.

This means someone is spending hours and hours each week trying to find the right balance of meeting department needs and keeping the nursing staff happy. Luckily, nurse scheduling software provides you with some solutions to help make it all work. Here are five nurse scheduling hacks to save you time and frustration:

1. Rule-Based Self Scheduling

Rule-based nurse scheduling software is a real time saver for scheduling managers. You do as much of the schedule as you need to. Then, after the base schedule is released, employees can self-schedule into the remaining open shifts. It eliminates the need for pouring over spreadsheets to figure out hours and availability. It also takes a lot of work off your plate through automation and employees scheduling themselves while making sure work targets and safe staffing levels are met. Plus, your staff will appreciate the flexibility.

If you have a week’s schedule that worked particularly well, you can copy it and use it as a template. This will save you even more time. You can use it as a starting point time and time again and make necessary changes easily.

2. Communicate Needs on The Fly

The old telephone tree doesn’t work anymore. And a lot of time is wasted tracking down someone who might be able to fill in for an unexpected absence or pick up an extra shift. Use your nurse scheduling software and communicate to all available staff members with one click. Built in communication features can help you send out group messages in real time. In addition, the software can detect who is available based on scheduling and hours so only nurses who are open to work a shift are notified. This streamlines communication to get open shifts filled faster.

3. A One-Stop Shop for All Things Nurse Scheduling

Notes scribbled on post-its just don’t cut it. Neither do messages passed on to you in the break room that you forget by the time get back to your desk. Let your nurse scheduling software be your hub for all communications and all things related to scheduling. This includes all messages, vacation approvals, shift swaps, etc. All of this information will be available in one centralized platform for everyone to view. Everyone has access to it, so there is no excuse not to know it.

4. Timestamps

Timestamps on all communications are a handy feature holding nursing staff members accountable. This is a great way to track communications and see when the staff reviews them so no one can say they missed that memo.

5. 24/7 Access

There is nothing more frustrating than someone not showing up for a shift because they didn’t know they had to be there. This is eliminated with web-based nurse scheduling software. They have 24/7 access to their schedules from anywhere they have Internet access or mobile data. No longer can they say they didn’t know they were supposed to work. They can see the schedule for themselves, and it’s always updated in real-time.

Nurse scheduling software saves time and reduces the stress your managers suffer at the hands of nurse scheduling. Schedule360 employee scheduling software provides amazing scheduling automation to make your job easier. Create and adjust schedules quickly to increase productivity, lessen labor costs, and maintain staffing levels.

Contact Schedule360 for a free demo to see how we can provide nurse scheduling solutions customized for you.