As a nurse manager, you know that scheduling your nursing staff can be a challenge. A variety of factors come into play, from estimating patient demand during a scheduling period to understanding the mix of nursing skills that's necessary to cover that demand. It's a juggling act to accommodate staff requests for time off and to stay within your budget. But in the end, creating a schedule that works is a vital part of managing a nursing team. Inadequate scheduling can mean overworked employees — and a threat to good patient care.

First, you'll want to estimate the number of patients in a unit at any given time and how much care each patient is likely to require. You can then calculate how many hours of care are required to cover a shift. Proper staffing requires scheduling nurses so that a mix of their specialized skills are represented on every shift to cover patient need. Be sure that you know who can offer what.

When scheduling, of course, you're always striving to address staff requests for time off and, in some cases, more flexible hours. Given the present nursing shortage, it's in your organization's best interest to do your best to meet these requests. Staff morale — and staff retention — may depend on it. It helps to devise a standard scheduling process that includes clear policies about available vacation times, choosing shifts, and swapping shifts. Microsoft Office Excel 2003 is an excellent tool for creating and posting easy-to-read staff assignments. Make a habit of establishing and posting these schedules well in advance, because this gives you plenty of time to negotiate changes and saves you from making phones calls to off-duty staff members — or worse, bringing in expensive temporary replacements — when a scheduled staff member becomes unavailable at the last moment.

The following tools and tips will help you create, communicate, and track nursing schedules in a manner that serves your patients, your budget, and your staff.

• Schedule nursing staff (Article)
  Learn to create a schedule that addresses patient need, employee requests, and your budget.
• Nursing scheduling spreadsheet (Template)
  Use this Excel template to schedule staff.