Hospital Worker Schedule Information

23 Aug, 2016 | Tags: , ,

Things You Didn’t Know about a Hospital Worker’s Schedule

For both clinical and non-clinical hospital workers, a typical schedule can be anything but regular. Because hospitals see an ongoing and frequent turnover of patients whose needs are always changing, it is quite the challenge to make sure the facility is properly staffed at all times.

Most people know that doctors and nurses work long and varied hours, but the general public may not realize just what is involved in the typical schedule of a hospital employee. For instance, did you know that many hospital employees build time into their day not only for travel, but for parking as well? Very few hospitals have designated parking just for employees (doctors excluded), so workers have to either compete for spaces with visitors in a parking garage or possibly park a distance away from the building itself.

Here is a list of hospital workers’ challenges and how our hospital employee scheduling software can help overcome these obstacles.

Many, if not most, work longer than their scheduled shifts. Much of what is involved in the job needs to get done, whether it takes 10 hours or 12 hours. It simply cannot be put off until the next shift. Furthermore, this may or may not count as overtime depending on the job and the hospital itself. Adding up all that extra time put in over the course of a week, month, or year really demonstrates just how difficult hospital work can be. One of the most useful features of What Time Do I Work software is that employers can set up automatic alerts to notify them of any overtime. This can help manage employee hours and control payroll budgets.

They work potentially inconsistent and/or overnight hours. This applies mostly to clinical employees, especially doctors and nurses. For example, obstetricians can be called in any time for a delivery, emergency room staff can suddenly find themselves working extra shifts or called in during the night to assist with an influx of victims of a multi-vehicle accident, or simply working unexpectedly to cover for a colleague’s sick day. The reasons for inconsistent hours are virtually endless, but our software is up to the task of handling this problem in a user-friendly way. Easily create on-call schedules and also view past hospital schedules that are logged into the system for help with staffing future shifts. This will help prevent understaffing situations and will make the most of employees’ availability and skill sets for overall staffing needs.

If time off is needed, it is up to the employee to switch shifts with a coworker. It is really not feasible for a department to be short one or several employees on any given shift, so if an employee needs time off for any reason when he or she is originally scheduled to work, that person is responsible for finding coverage. This can be difficult, especially if the employee does not have contact with everyone in the department. This difficulty is increased if the employee needs multiple shifts covered. With our software, employees can view schedules anytime and swap shifts with colleagues within the program. This makes for possible and effective communication within departments without having to involve management in shift changes.

For many hospital workers, especially nurses, there is no typical schedule. Shifts rotate, they are not permanent (day/night rotation), and employees must rotate holidays and weekends depending on the hospital. This type of work can be an added burden on an already stressful job. Imagine if an employee has to take an unplanned sick day because his or her child needs to stay home from school due to illness. Needing to find coverage in a pinch can be challenging and stressful. This comes with the job, but effective scheduling software can make it much easier to handle. This constantly changing work environment requires a proactive scheduling system, one in which employers can easily access employees’ contact information, communicate posted schedules, and organize time-off requests. WhatTimeDoIWork software does all this and more; it is even sufficient for large hospitals who need to manage staff with different availabilities.

Only someone who has worked in a hospital can truly understand the pros and cons of doing so, especially when it comes to a typical schedule. Our software is user-friendly and can meet all the challenges that hospital workers and employers face on a daily basis. I

t can be nearly impossible to anticipate all the obstacles that are part of managing a hospital staff, but WhatTimeDoIWork takes the guesswork out of the equation.