Journal article
Narrative review of mathematical and psychological studies of staff scheduling for holidays as applicable to anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists
Journal of clinical anesthesia, Vol.88, 111142
09/2023
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2023.111142
PMID: 37156087
Abstract
We performed a narrative review of articles applicable to anesthesiologists' and nurse anesthetists' choices of who works each statutory holiday for operating room and non-operating room anesthesia. We include search protocols and detailed supplementary annotated comments. Studies showed that holiday staff scheduling is emotional. Working on holidays often is more stressful and undesirable than comparable workdays. Intrinsic motivation may overall, among practitioners, be greater by preferentially scheduling practitioners who choose to work on holidays, for compensation, before mandating that practitioners who would prefer to be off must work on holidays. Granting each practitioner (who so desires) at least one major holiday off can depend on identifying and scheduling other clinicians who want to work holidays for monetary compensation or extra compensatory time off. Scheduling holidays by random priority (i.e., a lottery choosing who gets to pick their holiday[s] first, second, etc.) is inefficient, resulting in fewer practitioners having their preferences satisfied, especially for small departments or divisions (e.g., cardiac anesthesia). No article that we reviewed implemented a random priority mechanism for staff scheduling. The selection of practitioners to take turns in choosing their holidays is perceived to have less fairness than a selection process that collects each participants' preferences. Although holidays often are scheduled separately from regular workdays and weekends, doing so will not increase efficiency or fairness. Holidays can, in practice, be scheduled simultaneously with non-holidays. Models can explicitly include fairness as an objective. For example, fairness can be based on the difference between the maximum and minimum number of holidays for which practitioners of the same division are scheduled. Holidays can be given greater weights than other shifts when estimating fairness. Staff scheduling for holidays, when done simultaneously with regular workdays, nights, and weekends, can also use personalized weights, specifying practitioners' preferences to be satisfied if possible.
•Scheduling holidays via random priority (i.e., lottery) is simple, but inefficient.•Staff want appropriate compensation and workload balancing for holidays.•Motivation is improved by preferentially scheduling staff who choose to work holidays.•Holidays and non-holidays can be scheduled separately or simultaneously.•Staff scheduling models can mathematically formulate fairness, in several ways.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Narrative review of mathematical and psychological studies of staff scheduling for holidays as applicable to anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists
- Creators
- Grant M. Hurt - University of Iowa, Iowa City, USAFranklin Dexter - Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of clinical anesthesia, Vol.88, 111142
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jclinane.2023.111142
- PMID
- 37156087
- ISSN
- 0952-8180
- eISSN
- 1873-4529
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 05/06/2023
- Date published
- 09/2023
- Academic Unit
- Health Management and Policy; Anesthesia
- Record Identifier
- 9984406146002771
Metrics
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