Daily scheduling of nurses in operating suites

Abstract

This article provides a new multi-objective integer programming model for the daily scheduling of nurses in operating suites. The model is designed to assign nurses to different surgery cases based on their specialties and competency levels, subject to a series of hard and soft constraints related to nurse satisfaction, idle time, overtime, and job changes during a shift. To find solutions, two methodologies were developed. The first is based on the idea of a solution pool and the second is a variant of modified goal programming. The model and the solution procedures were validated using real data provided by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The results show that the two methodologies can produce schedules that satisfy all demand with 50% less overtime and 50% less idle time when benchmarked against current practice.