3045. Integrating Flexibility in Nurse Scheduling
Invited abstract in session WA-21: Metaheuristics for Scheduling and Production, stream Metaheuristics .
Wednesday, 8:30-10:00Room: Esther Simpson 2.12
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Flore Caye
|
| CIRRELT, Polytechnique Montréal | |
| 2. | Antoine Legrain
|
| IOE, University of Michigan |
Abstract
The nurse scheduling problem (NSP) involves assigning nurses to shifts while balancing institutional staffing requirements and individual preferences. Traditional approaches often produce rigid schedules that do not account for unforeseen last-minute constraints faced by nurses. To address this, we introduce flexibility mechanisms: shift flips and nurse swaps.
A shift flip allows a nurse to interchange a working day with a day off, provided that the new schedule remains feasible. A nurse swap extends this concept by allowing two nurses to exchange assignments, ensuring mutual benefit without compromising staffing needs.
We first solve the NSP without flexibility using a Column Generation algorithm to generate individual rosters. Because swaps have to be mutually beneficial, their pricing cannot be embedded in the Column Generation framework.
We formulate a mixed-integer programming model, composed of the column generation restricted master problem to which we add a set of flexibility constraints. The model ensures a minimum level of swap opportunities while optimizing overall scheduling costs and respecting demand constraints.
We propose different swap pricing strategies and analyse the balance between flexibility and operational costs. Experimental results demonstrate the possibility of incorporating flexibility without being detrimental to operating costs.
Keywords
- Programming, Mixed-Integer
- Scheduling
- Health Care
Status: accepted
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