Does Self Scheduling for Nurses Increase Job Satisfaction?

1. Does Self Scheduling for Nurses Increase Job Satisfaction? Deidre Dennison, RN VICU Shane Cappadocia, RN CPS

2. What is Self Scheduling? • Nurses within a given unit collaborate over which days/shifts each nurse would like to work based on unit needs and requirements (Bluett 2008)

3. How Does Self Scheduling Work? • Four stages similar to nursing process (Bluett 2008) • Assessment • Planning • Implementation • Evaluation

4. Assessment • Nursing leadership to assess unit specific staffing needs • Examination of potential obstacles to success • Determination of staff willingness to participate

5. Planning • Organize a scheduling committee • Develop scheduling by-laws or guidelines • Address weekend, holiday, and shift requirements • Provide staff education

6. Implementation • Initiate pilot program • Provide clarification, re-education, support & encouragement • Review bylaws with staff to ensure all requirements are being met

7. Evaluation • Review positive & negative factors that affected success or failure • Provide employee surveys to collect satisfaction data • Review absenteeism, turnover, and time off requests • Adjust program as needed

8. Bylaws/Guidelines • Examples based on VICU/CPS self-scheduling system • Wish week • Self readjustment week • Readjustment week • Clear weekend/holiday rotations

9. Benefits of Self-Scheduling • Empowering nursing staff • Increased ownership & control of unit • Promotes accountability and staff conhesiveness • Encourages increased professionalism and morale • Offers more flexibility in scheduling

10. Benefits Continued • Decreased absenteeism and schedule changes • Less time spent by management on scheduling duties • Improved patient care • Decreased turnover • Leads to decreased personnel costs $$$ (Hung 2002)

11. Challenges of Self Scheduling • Unwillingness of staff to participate • Sense of entitlement regarding desired shifts • Unwillingness of staff to be flexible to the needs of the unit • Unwillingness for staff to follow set bylaws and requirements

12. Tips for Successful Self Scheduling • Collaboration between management, scheduling committee and nursing staff • Easily accessible bylaws, requirements and expectations • Regular committee meetings • Provide articles, research and staff meetings to educate and re-educate staff regarding process • Patience

13. So… Does Self Scheduling Improve Job Satisfaction?? • According to research (Bailynet al. 2007), if implemented properly it can be a powerful tool for staff satisfaction and retention • Success depends on management AND staff • It works for us! • May be a viable option for other units

14. References • Bailyn, L., Collins, R., & Song, Y. (2007). Self-scheduling for hospital nurses: an attempt and its difficulties. Journal Of Nursing Management, 15(1), 72-77. • Bluett, L. (2008). Self-scheduling: facilitate, don't control. Nursing Management, 39(6), 12. • Harton, B. B., Marshburn, D., Kuykendall, J., Poston, C., & Mears, D. (2012). Self-scheduling: Help or hindrance?. Nursing Management, 43(1), 10-11. • Hung, R. (2002). $uccess $tories. A note on nurse self-scheduling. Nursing Economic$, 20(1), 37-39. • Robb, E., Determan, A., Lampat, L., Scherbring, M., Slifka, R., & Smith, N. (2003). Recruitment & retention report. Strategies at work. Self-scheduling: satisfaction guaranteed?. Nursing Management, 34(7), 16-18.

15. Literature Review • Bailyn, L., Collins, R., & Song, Y. (2007). Self-scheduling for hospital nurses: an attempt and its difficulties. • Pilot program consisting of 70 RNs who oversee 31 total beds, including 12 step-down beds which required ICU nurse care • Plan was to implement self-scheduling • Four times during the year long pilot program nurses were given questionnaires to assess nurse perceptions of program • In this case, self scheduling did not work and the reasons are reviewed in the literature