Optimal nurse scheduling based on quantitative models of work-related fatigue

Previous nurse scheduling models have mainly focused on managerial constraints to minimize costs. Although some models incorporate nurse preferences and safety guidelines, human factors considerations related to performance of nurses (fatigue) have not been studied extensively. Fatigue has been linked to nursing injuries and medical errors, and shown to be impacted by schedule-related parameters (shift length). Thus, the objective of this article was to develop a nurse scheduling model incorporating quantitative models of fatigue. This model can help a nurse manager to make schedule-related decisions by highlighting trade-offs among many (conflicting) objectives including nurse shift preferences and nurse fatigue levels obtained from two different fatigue models, namely survey-based and circadian function-based fatigue models. The data used in the numerical experiments were obtained from real patient census data and various surveys of nurses working in different hospitals across the United States. Numerical results show that it is possible to obtain Pareto-optimal schedules where the nurse fatigue levels are significantly reduced for a slight decrement in nurse preferences.

[1]  S. S. Al Sharif,et al.  A 0-1 goal programming model for nurse scheduling , 2005, Comput. Oper. Res..

[2]  B. Taylor,et al.  Identifying sources and effects of carer fatigue and burnout for mental health nurses: a qualitative approach. , 2004, International journal of mental health nursing.

[3]  Seoung Bum Kim,et al.  A data-integrated simulation model to evaluate nurse–patient assignments , 2009, Health care management science.

[4]  Uwe Aickelin,et al.  Building Better Nurse Scheduling Algorithms , 2004, Ann. Oper. Res..

[5]  Jonathan F. Bard,et al.  Cyclic preference scheduling of nurses using a Lagrangian-based heuristic , 2007, J. Sched..

[6]  D Dawson,et al.  A quantitative model of work-related fatigue: background and definition , 2001, Ergonomics.

[7]  J. Geiger-Brown,et al.  Nurses' Perception of Their Work Environment, Health, and Well-Being , 2004, AAOHN journal : official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses.

[8]  Gustave J. Rath,et al.  Nurse Scheduling Using Mathematical Programming , 1976, Oper. Res..

[9]  Pascale Carayon,et al.  A human factors engineering conceptual framework of nursing workload and patient safety in intensive care units. , 2005, Intensive & critical care nursing.

[10]  Jen-Gwo Chen,et al.  Development of a hybrid expert system for nurse shift scheduling , 1992 .

[11]  L. Mecacci,et al.  Morningness-eveningness preferences and sleep-waking dairy data of morning and evening types in student and worker samples. , 1983, Ergonomics.

[12]  J. Barton.  Choosing to work at night: a moderating influence on individual tolerance to shift work. , 1994, The Journal of applied psychology.

[13]  See Anthropometry.  HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING , 2011 .

[14]  E Grandjean,et al.  Fatigue: its physiological and psychological significance. , 1968, Ergonomics.

[15]  Xiaochun Jiang,et al.  Taxonomy for integrating scheduling theory and human factors: Review and research opportunities , 2009 .

[16]  Kurt M. Bretthauer,et al.  Reexamining the Nurse Scheduling Problem: Staffing Ratios and Nursing Shortages , 2006, Decis. Sci..

[17]  Jay M. Rosenberger,et al.  Stochastic programming for nurse assignment , 2008, Comput. Optim. Appl..

[18]  J. Burch,et al.  Shiftwork impacts and adaptation among health care workers. , 2009, Occupational medicine.

[19]  E. Makela.  Understanding chronic fatigue syndrome. , 1994, American pharmacy.

[20]  Adam Fletcher,et al.  Prediction of Performance during Sleep Deprivation and Alcohol Intoxication using a Quantitative Model of Work-Related Fatigue , 2003 .

[21]  Edmund K. Burke,et al.  A shift sequence based approach for nurse scheduling and a new benchmark dataset , 2010, J. Heuristics.

[22]  E. Åhsberg.  Dimensions of fatigue in different working populations. , 2000, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[23]  片岡 篤,et al.  乗用車開発における Perceived Quality 評価 , 2008 .

[24]  S. Asche,et al.  Health and Performance Factors in Health Care Shift Workers , 2004, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[25]  D. Warner,et al.  A Mathematical Programming Model for Scheduling Nursing Personnel in a Hospital , 1972 .

[26]  F. Speizer,et al.  Rotating shift work, sleep, and accidents related to sleepiness in hospital nurses. , 1992, American journal of public health.

[27]  Torbjörn Larsson,et al.  Automating the self-scheduling process of nurses in Swedish healthcare: a pilot study , 2010, Health care management science.

[28]  Torbjörn Åkerstedt,et al.  Shiftwork and different dimensions of fatigue , 2000 .

[29]  David J Kupfer,et al.  Morningness-Eveningness and Lifestyle Regularity , 2004, Chronobiology international.

[30]  S. Muecke,et al.  Effects of rotating night shifts: literature review. , 2005, Journal of advanced nursing.

[31]  Uwe Aickelin,et al.  An Indirect Genetic Algorithm for a Nurse Scheduling Problem , 2004, Comput. Oper. Res..

[32]  C. Shapiro,et al.  Distinguishing sleepiness and fatigue: focus on definition and measurement. , 2006, Sleep medicine reviews.

[33]  L. M. Barker,et al.  Fatigue, performance and the work environment: a survey of registered nurses. , 2011, Journal of advanced nursing.

[34]  Ann E. K. Page.  Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses , 2004 .

[35]  Philippa H. Gander,et al.  The Epidemiology of Morningness/Eveningness: Influence of Age, Gender, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Factors in Adults (30-49 Years) , 2006, Journal of biological rhythms.

[36]  Kalyan S Pasupathy,et al.  Impact of Fatigue on Performance in Registered Nurses: Data Mining and Implications for Practice , 2012, Journal for healthcare quality : official publication of the National Association for Healthcare Quality.

[37]  Graham Kendall,et al.  Hyper-Heuristics: An Emerging Direction in Modern Search Technology , 2003, Handbook of Metaheuristics.

[38]  E. Åhsberg,et al.  Perceived quality of fatigue during different occupational tasks Development of a questionnaire , 1997 .

[39]  A. Berger,et al.  Impact of shift work on the health and safety of nurses and patients. , 2006, Clinical journal of oncology nursing.

[40]  D. Medeiros,et al.  Accommodating individual preferences in nurse scheduling via auctions and optimization , 2009, Health Care Management Science.

[41]  Maury A. Nussbaum,et al.  Dimensions of Fatigue as Predictors of Performance: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach Among Registered Nurses , 2013 .

[42]  Vincenzo Natale,et al.  GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MORNINGNESS–EVENINGNESS PREFERENCE , 2002, Chronobiology international.

[43]  I. Kandolin.  Burnout of female and male nurses in shiftwork. , 1993, Ergonomics.

[44]  Jonathan F. Bard,et al.  Preference scheduling for nurses using column generation , 2005, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[45]  M L Miller,et al.  Implementing self-scheduling. , 1984, The Journal of nursing administration.

[46]  R. Stafford,et al.  Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine , 2001 .

[47]  Uwe Aickelin,et al.  An estimation of distribution algorithm for nurse scheduling , 2007, Ann. Oper. Res..

[48]  H. Thierry,et al.  The effects of extended workdays on fatigue, health, performance and satisfaction in nursing. , 2003, Journal of advanced nursing.

[49]  L. Scott,et al.  The Impact of Multiple Care Giving Roles on Fatigue, Stress, and Work Performance Among Hospital Staff Nurses , 2006, The Journal of nursing administration.

[50]  U. Edéll-Gustafsson,et al.  Self-reported sleep quality, strain and health in relation to perceived working conditions in females. , 2002, Scandinavian journal of caring sciences.

[51]  R. Kane,et al.  Sleep, Sleepiness, Fatigue, and Performance of 12-Hour-Shift Nurses , 2012, Chronobiology international.

[52]  Is there a difference in nurse burnout on the day or night shift? , 1993, The Health care supervisor.

[53]  L. Cranley,et al.  Impact of nursing on hospital patient mortality: a focused review and related policy implications , 2006, Quality and Safety in Health Care.

[54]  Margaret M. Wiecek,et al.  2D decision-making for multicriteria design optimization , 2007 .

[55]  J. Takahashi,et al.  Circadian Rhythmicity: Regulation in the Time Domain , 1984 .

[56]  L. Aiken,et al.  The working hours of hospital staff nurses and patient safety. , 2004, Health affairs.

[57]  A. Rogers.  The Effects of Fatigue and Sleepiness on Nurse Performance and Patient Safety , 2008 .

[58]  P. Totterdell,et al.  A classification of nursing and midwifery shift systems. , 1993, International journal of nursing studies.

[59]  J. Geiger-Brown,et al.  Health care system changes and reported musculoskeletal disorders among registered nurses. , 2004, American journal of public health.

[60]  R. Halfens,et al.  Fatigue: a summary of the definitions, dimensions, and indicators. , 1996, Nursing diagnosis : ND : the official journal of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association.

[61]  M M Heitkemper,et al.  CIRCADIAN RHYTHMICITY OF CORTISOL AND BODY TEMPERATURE: MORNINGNESS-EVENINGNESS EFFECTS , 2001, Chronobiology international.

[62]  A. Wingate,et al.  Defining and measuring fatigue. , 1999, Image--the journal of nursing scholarship.

[63]  J. Geiger-Brown,et al.  Is it time to pull the plug on 12-hour shifts?: Part 1. The evidence. , 2010, The Journal of nursing administration.

[64]  Edmund K. Burke,et al.  A hybrid heuristic ordering and variable neighbourhood search for the nurse rostering problem , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[65]  Kaisa Miettinen,et al.  Nonlinear multiobjective optimization , 1998, International series in operations research and management science.

[66]  Kathryn A. Dowsland,et al.  Nurse scheduling with tabu search and strategic oscillation , 1998, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[67]  E. Grandjean,et al.  The Ergonomics Research Society: The Society's Lecture 1968: Given at the University of Sussex on 27th March. , 1968 .

[68]  M. Dalakas,et al.  Fatigue: definitions, mechanisms, and paradigms for study. , 1998, Seminars in oncology.

[69]  Hans P. A. Van Dongen,et al.  Chapter 35 – Circadian Rhythms in Sleepiness, Alertness, and Performance , 2005 .

[70]  Y. Yip.  A study of work stress, patient handling activities and the risk of low back pain among nurses in Hong Kong. , 2001, Journal of advanced nursing.

[71]  A. Gurses,et al.  Nurses' Work Schedule Characteristics, Nurse Staffing, and Patient Mortality , 2011, Nursing research.