Hourly Team Self-Scheduling
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Fifteen
New York hospitals sought greater flexibility to recruit & retain RNs.
The TSS model…was designed to give RNs greater control over their
schedules and thus to improve employee satisfaction, retention and
recruitment rates.
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New York City’s hospitals face more than their share of the severe
national shortage of Registered Nurses. The League of Voluntary Hospitals
represents unionized hospitals in the city and 1199SEIU represents their
RNs. In a strong collaboration the hospitals and the union set out to make
a positive impact on RN recruitment and retention.
They began by trying to understand what drove their members away and what
would keep them. Intensive study showed that one of the strongest desires
of the nurses was greater control over their schedules – what they
called “self-scheduling.” Implementing such an approach could increase
overall job satisfaction, reduce sick calls, lower turnover and improve
patient care.
Drawing on its strong flexibility experience, R&C partnered with a
labor-management committee and implemented the following steps.
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Diagnostic
Focus
groups and interviews unearthed the elements of a best
practice: teams must self-schedule, nurse managers had
to delegate
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Strategy
Pairs
of nurse managers and RN facilitators from two units would be
chosen to learn and “seed” the practice in each hospital
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Communication
Diagnostic
results and plan were distributed directly to over 6,000 RNs
and the union promoted the initiative to members
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Training
R&C delivered two days of skill and TSS
process training (conflict resolution, team building,
scheduling) to 60 RN/Manager pairs:
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Evaluation
Several
questions on an all-hospital study showed convincingly
positive results for trainees:
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79%
“more satisfied with TSS than with the way we used to
schedule”
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64%
agreed that “TSS has improved morale of the RNs in my
unit”
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68%
agreed that “because of TSS, I am more likely to continue
working here” |
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Team Self-Scheduling proved a very popular practice. Once the initial
trainings were completed, R&C delivered advanced training, trained
additional units in individual hospitals and developed a train-the-trainer
process and materials to broaden usage. The desired satisfaction,
recruitment and retention effect is beginning to be felt. And even deeper
changes are starting to occur. According to one Registered Nurse who is an
active member of SEIU1199:
“Here people are now more likely to work together. TSS has opened up the
dialogue between management and staff.”
This approach to designing customized flexibility for hourly RNs
translates well into other hourly environments.
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