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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF CURRENT RESEARCH
International Journal of Current Research
Vol. 6, Issue, 03, pp.5862-5864, March, 2014

ISSN: 0975-833X
RESEARCH ARTICLE
LINEAR PROGRAMMING APPLIED TO NURSES SHIFTING PROBLEMS FOR
SIX CONSECUTIVE DAYS PER WEEK
*1Satheeshkumar, B., 2Nareshkumar, S. and 3Kumaraghuru, S.
1Dr.N.G.P. Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
2SriGuruInstitute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
3Chikkanna Government Arts College, Tirupur, Tamilnadu, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Hospital’s key primary mission is to ensure continuous ward care service with appropriate number of
Article History:
th nursing staffs and the right mix of nursing skills. The planning and scheduling is done to avoid
Received 25 December, 2013
Received in revised form additional non essential cost for hospital. Nurses’ preferences are taken into considerations such as the
17th January, 2014 number of night shift and consecutive rest days. To present a mathematical modeling technique by
Accepted 14th February, 2014 means of linear programming as an efficient tool to solve problems related to optimization in
Published online 31st March, 2014 healthcare. Hospital must be staffed 24 hours a day by a limited number of nurses. This paper
illustrates how a linear programming solves the nurses scheduling problems. This paper illustrates
Key words: how linear programming has been effectively used in Nurses scheduling at a multi-speciality Hospital
in Coimbatore.
Nurses Scheduling,
Linear programming,
Nurses staffing.

Copyright © 2014 Satheeshkumar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

INTRODUCTION does not necessarily guarantee the fairness of distribution of

work such as the number of night shifts or weekend shifts.
Nurse scheduling is a multi-objective problem. Systematic While the nurses might have indicated their preferences, the
approach for nurse allocation is needed to ensure continuous planner might not have taken all these into consideration
and adequate level of patient care services while maintaining resulting in poorly designed schedules which has to be
the legislative requirements as well as internal policies. This modified by the nurses swapping duties or working under
problem becomes complex when addition factors such as undesired conditions. Occasionally, the plans did not attempt to
patient admission, nurse qualifications or license to practice, efficiently utilize the manpower properly.
type of disease as well as unforeseen accidents. The personal
needs of the nurses such as vacation or work shift preferences OPERATION RESEARCH APPLICATIONS IN
add a new dimension to the scheduling problem. The need to HEALTHCARE – THREE CATEGORIES
balance all the various dimension of the problem makes
nurse scheduling a particularly daunting manual task. perations
Research is a science designed to provide quantitative tools to
decision-making procedures. It comprises a set of mathematic
optimization and simulation methods and models, such as
linear programming, non-linear programming, combinatory
optimization, theory of queues, dynamic programming, theory
of decisions, etc. There are various grades of nurses ranging
from registered nurse to junior nurse. Some the nurses might be
trained to manage certain medical conditions or skilled in
certain area such as intensive care. Due to the varied trainings
and specializations, certain type of nurses has to be staffed for
wards requiring those skills. These varied conditions cause Linear Programming
manual nurse scheduling to consume a significant amount of
time. Even when the schedule has been planned manually, it Linear programming techniques are considered as mathematics
based decision-making tool. Such technique requires two
*Corresponding author: Satheeshkumar, B., fundamental types of functions, objective and constraints, that
Dr.N.G.P. Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India.
5863 Satheeshkumar et al. Linear programming applied to nurses shifting problems for six consecutive days per week

is developed to generate closed-form solution. In a typical OR Let x2 be number of nurses starting duty on Monday (Monday
problem, the objective function, often expressed as Z, is – Saturday)
formulated to determine the maximum profit while minimizing Let x3 be number of nurses starting duty on Tuesday (Tuesday
cost with given set of rules or constraints such as business – Sunday)
policies, resource availability, preventive maintenance Let x4 be number of nurses starting duty on Wednesday
schedule, transportation distance or time and capacity. (Wednesday – Monday)
Let x5 be number of nurses starting duty on Thursday
Literature Review (Thursday – Tuesday)
Let x6 be number of nurses starting duty on Friday (Friday –
Nursing scheduling has been widely studied since 1960s. Prior Wednesday)
to the development of mathematical programming, most Let x7 be number of nurses starting duty on Saturday (Saturday
nursing scheduling approaches were based on cyclical – Wednesday)
modeling. Cyclic models consist of regular patterns which can
be rotated across multiple time periods. The pattern will only The demand for the number of nurses in the hospital on
repeat after one cycle. These types of models are highly Sunday: 100, Monday: 200, Tuesday: 150, Wednesday: 250,
repetitive and regular. Even though such models are considered Thursday: 90, Friday: 160 and Saturday: 300 respectively.
to be fair in terms of distribution of work, the modeling process Let xi be the number of workers who begin their six day shift
ignores the preferences of the nurses. Howell’s approach on day i. Our objective is
(1966) provides the first cyclical scheduling approach which
takes into considerations the behavior and preferences of the x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6 + x7
individual nurse. Subsequently, nurse scheduling began to
adopt heuristic models which are able to consider all the Consider the constraint for Sunday staffing level of 100. Those
requirements at the planning stage (Maier-Rothe and Wolfe, who start their shift on Sunday (x1), they will work for
1973; Isken and Hancock, 1991). This enables the models to consecutively 6 days, that is, Sunday to Friday. Those, who
attempt satisfying all the requirements. The development of start their shift on Monday (x2), they will work for
mathematical programming also gave rise to various consecutively 6 days, that is, Monday to Saturday. Similarly,
approaches to solving the nurse scheduling problem especially those who start their shift on Tuesday (x3), they will work
the non-cyclical problem (Harmeier, 1991; Ozkarahan, Tuesday to Sunday and so on.
1989; Ozkarahan, 1991; Tobon, 1984; Warner, 1976b). Norde
rescheduling aims to minimize changes to be original schedule We can formulate the following table
while minimizing costs, rebuilding the schedule with current
staff is usually be cheaper option as there is no extra wage to x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7
pay, but altering the schedule will alter other nurses schedules Sunday Shift * * * * * * -
as well. Monday Shift - * * * * * *
Tuesday Shift * - * * * * *
7 Wednesday Shift * * - * * * *
Min z =  xi subject to xi biwhere i = 1 .. 7 Thursday Shift * * * - * * *
i 1 Friday Shift * * * * - * *
Saturday Shift * * * * * - *

where xi is the number of nurses assigned to day1, day2, etc.

and bi is the demand of nurses for day1, day2, etc. Similar arguments give a total formulation of
7
Problem Definition Minimize z =  xi subject to constraints
i 1
Consider a hospital that is open seven days a week. Based on x1 +x3+ x4 + x5 + x6 + x7  100
past experience, the number of nurses needed on a particular x1 + x2 +x4+ x5 + x6 + x7  200
day is given as follows. x1 + x2 + x3 +x5+ x6 + x7  150
x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x6+x7  250
x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x1
Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
x1 +x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x7  160
No. of Nurses 200 150 250 90 160 300 100 x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6  90
x2 +x3 + x4 + x5 + x6+ x7 300
Every nurse works six consecutive days, and then takes one x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 + x6 + x7  0; / xi 0 for all i
day off, repeating this pattern indefinitely. How can we
minimize the number of nurses that staff the hospital? Solving the Model

Model Since this model has 7 variables, we cannot solve the problem
manually. Hence, we can solve the LPP by using solver. If we
A natural first attempt at this problem is to let xi be the number solve the LPP, we will get the feasible solution (Min Z =
of people working on day i. 303.3333). But, unfortunately minimum demand of nurses will
Let x1 be number of nurses starting duty on Sunday (Sunday – not be in decimal point.Hence, we have to solve the above LPP
Friday) by Integer Programming Problem (possibility of extension).
5864 International Journal of Current Research, Vol. 6, Issue, 03, pp.5862-5864, March, 2014

Conclusion This research paper can be further extended to all the other
fields of work which pursue shift system. This paper has solved
Nurses shifting allotment is a well developed area. Note that the problem using Linear Programming, however, the same
our model has only one type of shift, but the model is easily problem can be solved using Integer Programming. Employing
extended to other types of shifts, with differing shift costs. The Integer Programming method will also fetch better results.
resulting schedule includes balanced schedules in terms of the
distribution of shift duties, fairness in terms of the number of REFERENCES
consecutive night duties and the preferences of the nurses. This
is an improvement over the traditional manual approach which Harmeier PE. Linear programming for optimization of nurse
is costly in terms of labor as well as inefficient in producing a scheduling. Computers in Nursing 1991;9(4):149–
good schedule. Nurse rostering is a complex scheduling 51.Frederico Ratael Moreira – Linear Programming
problem that affects hospital personnel on a daily basis all over Applied to Healthcare Problems
the world. The need for quality software solutions is acute for a Howell JP. Cyclical scheduling of nursing personnel. Hospitals
number of reasons. In particular, it is very important to 1966;40:77–85.
efficiently utilise time and effort, to evenly balance the Isken MW, Hancock WM. A heuristic approach to nurse
workload among people and to attempt to satisfy personnel scheduling in hospital units with non-stationary,urgent
preferences. A high quality roster can lead to a more contented demand, and a fixed staff size. Journal of the Society for
and thus more effective workforce. Health Systems 1991; 2(2):24–40.
Maier-Rothe C, Wolfe HB. Cyclical scheduling and allocation
Future impact of this study of nursing staffs. Socio-Economic Planning Science
1973;7:471–87.
In the present day scenario, the ratio of the nurses available to Practical Management Decision Making Tools : Operation
serve the ever-increasing number of patients is very less. The Research by Evnjin Lee, New Mexico State University,
finding of this research enables optimum utilization of the Joon-Yeoul Oh, Texas A & University, Kingsville, Edward
available resources, increase in the efficiency of the services Pines, New Mexico State University – Journal of Applied
provided by the nurses and maximum profit with minimum Business and Economics.
resources. The research work undertaken for this paper helped
in understanding the existing shifting problems in Nursing as a
whole and facilitated in making the right decision about the
requirement of the nursing staff at the different hours of
the day.
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