Investigation of the current status of the nursing work system and development of software programs to be used for shift scheduling

This descriptive and design based research was carried out as a two-phase study. The aim of the first phase was to identify the current status of nurses' work order and shift scheduling and the related problems they experience in this respect. By means of benefiting from the data obtained out of the first phase of this study, it was aimed in the second phase to design and develop a software to be used for creating a standardized shift scheduling model. The study population of the first phase comprised 207 nurses working at 23 hospitals (Training and Research Hospitals Affiliated to the Ministry of Health and State Hospitals). Data were collected between September 10, 2018 and December 12, 2018 through a questionnaire which consisted of 40 items and developed by the researchers. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Kruskal Wallis test, Mann Whitney U test, Chi-square test and Spearman Correlation test. As a result of the first phase of the study, it was found that the mean number of beds in the clinics the participants work at was 24.23 ± 15.01, the mean number of inpatients per day was 9.16 ± 8.2, the mean number of patients that the participants provided nursing care during their last working shift was 12.10 ± 10.28, and the mean number of nurses in the clinic were 14.79 ± 10.48. Also, it was found that 49% of the participant nurses work on rotational shifts both day and night, 54% of them were dissatisfied with working on a shift system and that the shift scheduling are prepared manually and by a monthly service nurse. As for their work order, the participants recommended that the number of nurses be increased to a sufficient level, at least 2 nurses work on the same shift, and the shift schedules be fair. In the second phase of the study, the software program "Hospital Shift List – NÖBETLİK" was developed based on the model designed for nurses' work order and shift scheduling, and this program was installed on the mobile phones with IOS and Android operating system. The pilot sampling of the second phase consisted of 18 nurses working at Unit 95 of the Oncology Hospital of Hacettepe University. Mobil application was used by the nurses between the date of 01 November - 30 November 2020, and at the end, a questionnaire form was administered to nurses to determine their opinions regarding the pilot application and functionality of the program. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results obtained in this phase revealed that the majority of the participant nurses were in the opinion that the developed software is simple, fast, and uncomplicated, the shift scheduling is objective and fair and allows for paying regard to the nurses' preferences, and that the software requires much less time for shift scheduling compared to the manual system. It was found that the nurses rated the functionality of the developed software and their satisfaction with it as 8 out of 10In the light of these findings. It was determined that the nurses used the program for 5-15 minutes daily, and the responsible nurse used the program for 35-40 minutes for the creation of the new list. This study recommends that the work schedule of nurses be prepared in a manner that pays attention to appropriate working hours that are arranged mostly with fixed shifts, and by using the software program(s) which has been proved to be created in a fair and objective way, preventing wasting time with manually created shift schedules.