Optimization of nurse scheduling satisfaction

Abstract

A recent study in The Netherlands, reports an expected shortage of 140,000 healthcare employees by 2031. Two main reasons for this shortage are an increased demand for healthcare and a shortage on the healthcare labour market. The irregular shifts and unconventional working hours make nurses quit their profession or refrain others from applying. This thesis explores the effect of scheduling decisions on job satisfaction of nurses in Dutch hospitals. Applying mathematical optimization, we examine if nurse satisfaction can be improved and at what cost. Incorporating results from interviews and a survey, this thesis presents a formulation of the nurse scheduling problem including both capacity coverage and nurse satisfaction in the problem’s objective. The problem is solved using an exact (mixed integer programming) approach and a heuristic based on a Variable Neighbourhood Search approach. Using benchmark instances for the nurse scheduling problem, results show that nurse satisfaction can be improved at no cost of capacity coverage. Since these results are based on only simulated preferences, the thesis ends with some suggestions for further research.