Nurse scheduling models: a state-of-the-art review
Sitompul, D.; Randhawa, S.U.
Journal of the Society for Health Systems 2(1): 62-72
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 1043-1721 PMID: 2132334 Document Number: 348477
Nursing salaries make up the largest single element in hospital costs. Thus, effective scheduling of nursing personnel is important in controlling health-care costs. Scheduling nurses in hospitals is a complex problem due to variability in demand and a variety of conflicting interests and objectives. This article reviews the models that have been developed for nurse scheduling, including heuristic-, optimization- and artificial intelligence-based models. The approaches and limitations of these models are discussed, and a direction for future research is identified.