3 shifts a dayround-the-clock
Hospitals and clinics
Shift scheduling software for hospitals
On a ward the rota is a workload question and a safety question at the same time. A senior clinician has to be on every night, and still nobody should carry more than their share.
Example setup: a 12-person ward · 2 people on every night shift · at least 1 senior clinician per shift · max 6 shifts and 3 holiday shifts per resident each month.
A typical setup
Senior, mid-level and resident roles are defined. In the role pairing table, two residents alone on the same night is marked as not allowed. The night shift is defined as 16:00–08:00 with two people per day, and weekend cover is set separately.
Which constraints apply
- Rest after a night shift, calculated from shift hours
- Weekly total hour cap
- Monthly shift ceiling per resident
- Per-person cap on weekend and public holiday shifts
- Rotations, leave and conference days
The result
When the schedule is generated, every strained rule is listed with its date. The published rota is printed as a PDF for the board, while clinicians see only their own shifts from their account and enter their own time off.
How you set it up
- Add roles before people. Create the roles you actually roster by — consultant, registrar, resident — and set which ones may share a shift. Seniority pairing only works once the roles exist.
- Set the hard rules. Rest hours after a night shift, consecutive-day limit, monthly shift ceiling per resident, and a separate cap for holiday shifts.
- Collect time off first. Let people mark leave and preferred days from their own account for the month ahead, then generate. Generating before the requests are in means regenerating later.
- Review the distribution, then publish. Check the per-person shift and holiday counts, fix anything by hand, then publish so the ward sees it.
Common questions
Can I keep two juniors off the same night shift?
Yes. Define the roles, then use the pairing matrix to say which roles may not cover a shift together. The schedule treats it as a hard rule and flags any night it cannot satisfy.
How are holiday shifts kept even?
Set a per-person ceiling for holiday shifts. The distribution list shows how many each person took, so the spread is visible before you publish.
What happens when a resident takes unplanned leave mid-month?
Change the input and regenerate. You get a warning that the published schedule is out of date, and the team sees the new version once you publish again.
Can residents see only their own shifts?
By default yes. The team admin can switch on a setting that lets staff see everyone's shifts if the ward prefers an open rota.
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