Shift Planning During Holidays and Special Periods: A Fair and Smooth Guide

Scenario: 10 Nurses During Eid Holiday Period

Eid al-Fitr is approaching and you need to prepare a monthly shift plan covering the holiday period for your 10-nurse ward. Staff needs decrease during holiday days, the day before the holiday needs to be treated like a weekend, and fair distribution of Friday on-call duties is important. In this guide, we explain step by step how to create a smooth plan during the holiday period using Patika's special day and fairness features.

Step 1: Setting Working Days

The foundation of the shift plan in Patika is the Working Days setting. This setting determines which days the system will consider as active working days.

Weekday Working Days:

You select which days from Monday to Friday are working days. In most hospitals, all weekdays are selected.

Weekend Working Days:

You select which of Saturday and Sunday are working days. In the healthcare sector, both days are generally working days.

How to Do It? On the Shift Settings page (Step 5 in Guided Mode, Working Days tab in Advanced Mode), select your weekday and weekend working days. The days you select determine which days the system will consider when creating the schedule.

Tip: In some institutions, Saturday may be a working day while Sunday is a holiday. In this case, select only Saturday; no staff will work on Sunday.

Step 2: Setting the Standard Daily Hours

Standard Daily Hours is the fundamental parameter that determines how many hours a nurse should work per day. This value is typically 8 hours, but may vary according to your institution's work model.

What Is It Used For?

• The system uses this value to calculate each nurse's monthly total target working hours.
• Overtime control is based on this value.
• For example, in a month with 22 working days at standard 8 hours, the target is: 22 x 8 = 176 hours.

How to Do It? Enter the standard daily hours on the Shift Settings page (Step 4 in Guided Mode). If your institution uses a 12-hour shift model, you can set this value to 12.

Step 3: Defining Special Days

Ward intensity decreases during holiday days and fewer nurses are needed. With Patika's Special Days and Holiday Management feature, you can create different shift configurations for holiday days.

What Is a Special Day?

Days that require different staff numbers or shift arrangements from normal days. Public holidays, religious holidays, special events, or busy periods can be defined as special days.

How to Do It?

1. Go to the special days section on the Shift Settings page.
2. Select the dates of the holiday days (e.g., 3-day holiday vacation).
3. Define separate shift types and staff numbers for these days.

Example:

• Normal weekday: 24-hour on-call: 3 people, 8-hour day shift: 4 people (Total: 7)
• Holiday days: 24-hour on-call: 2 people, 8-hour day shift: 2 people (Total: 4)

This way, unnecessary extra nurses don't work during holiday days and staff holiday leave is planned more easily.

Step 4: Setting Weekend Equivalent Days

Days like the eve of a holiday may officially be weekdays but are practically treated like weekends. Patika's Weekend Equivalent Days feature does exactly this.

What Is It Used For?

It applies weekend rules to the weekday days you select. Meaning:

• Weekend shift types and staff numbers apply on those days.
• They are included in weekend fairness calculations.
• The maximum consecutive weekends rule counts these days too.

How to Do It?

1. Go to the period selection section on the Shift Settings page (Step 1 in Guided Mode).
2. On the calendar showing the days of the month, click on the days you want to treat as weekends.
3. Selected days are highlighted in blue.

Example Scenario:

Eid starts on Monday and the eve is Friday. If you mark the eve (Friday) as weekend equivalent:

• Weekend rules apply on Friday (fewer staff).
• That Friday + Saturday + Sunday forms a 3-day "weekend block".
• This Friday is also counted in weekend fairness calculations.

This way, excess staff don't work on the eve and the start of the holiday is planned more naturally.

Step 5: Configuring Specific Day Fairness

Fridays are special for many nurses; Friday prayers, pre-weekend plans, or cultural reasons may make Friday on-call duty an unwanted assignment. With the Specific Day Fairness rule, you can ensure Friday on-call duties are distributed equally among all staff.

What Is It Used For?

By adding a fairness rule for your chosen day, you guarantee that all staff work that day an equal number of times. The system distributes equally to everyone instead of constantly assigning the same nurse to Friday on-call.

How to Do It?

1. Go to the Specific Day Fairness section on the Shift Settings page (Step 9 in Guided Mode).
2. Select Friday (4) as the day (Monday=0, Tuesday=1, Wednesday=2, Thursday=3, Friday=4).
3. Set the penalty coefficient (higher value = stricter fairness).
4. Click the Add button.

Fairness for Multiple Days:

You are not limited to just Friday. If shifts coinciding with iftar time are important during Ramadan, you can add a separate fairness rule for Thursdays as well. This way, both Thursday and Friday on-call duties are distributed fairly.

Step 6: Schedule Generation and Review

When all special day settings, equivalent days, and fairness rules are ready, you can generate the shift plan.

Pre-Generation Checklist:

• Are holiday days defined as special days?
• Is the holiday eve marked as weekend equivalent?
• Is the Friday fairness rule added?
• Are nurses' holiday leave requests entered?

Click the Generate Schedule button on the Shift Settings page. The system creates the plan according to these priorities:

1. Special day rules you defined for holiday days (fewer staff) are applied.
2. The holiday eve is treated as a weekend and weekend rules apply.
3. Friday on-call duties are distributed fairly among all nurses.
4. Nurses' holiday leave requests are preserved.
5. Target working hours are calculated based on standard daily hours.

After Generation: Save the generated plan with Save Schedule Plan and share it in the ward group with Download Excel. Sharing the plan early before the holiday is important so nurses can make their personal plans.

Result: Holidays and special periods are the most challenging times for shift planning. However, with Patika's special day management, weekend equivalent days, and specific day fairness features, you can plan these periods smoothly and fairly. Define different staff needs for special days, mark days like eves as weekends, and activate Friday fairness. The result: both your nurses are satisfied and your ward operates without interruption.