Chapter 3: The HUC’s Role in Staffing and Scheduling
Master Schedules
You may have noticed guidelines in earlier sections related to the posting of schedules. But what exactly is a hospital schedule, how is it organized, and what information does it contain?
As you learned earlier, hospital schedules are typically 4 to 8 weeks long and typically must be released 3 to 6 weeks prior to the first day of the schedule. It is common for each type of job category to have its own schedule, so schedulers or unit clerical staff may be referring to several different schedules in their daily staffing needs.
Organization of Schedules
Master schedules show the assigned shifts for all staff for that employee group for a certain period, such as 6 weeks.
Employees are organized by job status, typically as follows:
- Full-time (F/T)
- Part-time (P/T)
- Casual or temporary (if allowed by contract)
Within each of these sections, employees are organized by seniority, with the most senior staff listed first.
Take Note! What Is Seniority?
Union Seniority refers to a bargaining unit member‘s length of employment during the course of their contract. The length of continuous employment for an employee is referred to as union seniority in the bargaining unit.
Seniority is usually calculated by one of these two methods:
- Start date of employment (regardless of hours worked)
- Continuous hours worked in the bargaining unit (common with ONA) (Blackwell Firm, 2023)
Seniority lists are usually updated twice yearly and provided to each patient care unit. It is important to update master schedules to reflect any changes in seniority.
Shifts are typically indicated by a symbol, such as “D” for the day shift and “N” for the night shift. It is common to have some sort of legend at the bottom of the schedule which outlines any symbols. It is easy to pick out patterns in full-time employees’ schedules. They typically follow a consistent pattern which repeats every two weeks per pay period, with their hours worked usually totalling 75 hours. These may be referred to as lines; for example, the most senior staff member’s full-time line may consist of days and evening shifts, whereas the most junior staff member’s line is days and night shifts.
Typically, full-time employees apply to positions with an established line and keep that line every schedule. However, part-time employees’ schedules tend to have less of a pattern, as their purpose is to fill in the gaps in the schedule when full-time employees are not scheduled and provide flexibility in staffing.
Example: Unit Schedule
| Name | Phone | Week 1 | Week 2 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | S | M | T | W | T | F | S | S | M | T | W | T | F | ||
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 25 | 21 | 22 | ||
| Kumar, Raj | (226) 555-5678 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | – | – | D | D | D | – | – |
| Yamamoto, Kayla | (548) 555-9012 | – | – | D | D | D | – | – | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| O’Connor, Mia | (647) 555-1234 | E | E | E | E | E | E | E | – | – | E | E | E | – | – |
| Nguyen, Lisa | (905) 555-5678 | – | – | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | – | – | D | D | D |
| Hernandez, Sofie | (226) 555-3456 | – | – | – | – | E | E | E | E | E | – | – | N | N | N |
| Ivanov, Alexei | (519) 555-9012 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | – | – | – | – | D | D | D |
| Garcia, Maria | (519) 555-1234 | N | N | N | N | N | N | N | – | – | N | N | N | – | – |
| Name | Phone | Week 1 | Week 2 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | S | M | T | W | T | F | S | S | M | T | W | T | F | ||
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 25 | 21 | 22 | ||
| Dubois, Jennifer | (705) 555-7890 | D | D | – | N | – | D | – | N | – | N | N | – | – | D |
| Al-Farsi, Layla | (647) 555-2345 | – | – | D | D | – | D | – | E | E | E | – | – | E | E |
| Petrov, Elena | (905) 555-6789 | D | D | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | E | E | E | – | – |
| Shantz, Taylor | (519) 555-0123 | E | E | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | D | D | – | E | E |
| Rossi, Luca | (226) 555-4567 | N | – | D | D | – | – | D | D | D | E | – | – | – | |
Deciphering a Schedule:
This schedule shows a 2-week pay period, starting on Saturday and ending on Friday (note the days of the week on top). The abbreviations of D, E, and N, are for day, evening, and night shifts.
The full-time staff are listed first on the schedule by seniority, with the most senior first. They have a consistent 8-hour schedule, with 10 shifts in every 2-week pay period (a total of 7.5 hrs per day x 10 days =75 hours per pay).
The part-time staff are listed next on the schedule by seniority, with the most senior first. Notice that the part-time staff do not have a consistent line like the full-time staff, instead they are scheduled around the gaps left in the schedule.
References
The Blackwell Firm. (2023, July 14). How does union seniority work with different departments?
