Nursing Scheduling Principles and Goals Quiz

Scheduling in Nursing Operations

• The primary goal of scheduling in nursing operations is to ensure adequate staffing and coverage to meet patient care needs.
• The first step in the scheduling process is to determine the number of staff required to meet patient care needs.

Goals of Scheduling

• One of the goals of scheduling in nursing operations is to ensure that the hospital or healthcare facility is adequately staffed to meet patient care needs.

Scheduling Process

• The final step in the scheduling process is to post the schedule for staff to view.

Determining Workload Hours

• The purpose of determining hours of maximum and minimum workload in the scheduling process is to identify periods of high and low demand for staffing.

Scheduling Metrics

• Coverage is a measure of schedule desirability as judged by the nurse who will have to work it.
• Stability measures the extent to which nurses know their future days off and on duty.
• Flexibility is the ability of a scheduling system to handle changes.
• Fairness is a measure of the resources consumed in making the scheduling decision.