Best Practices - Spring Break Scheduling
Spring Break-er of Schedules:
5 Step Process to Manage your Schedule During the Break
This month, Samantha Kurtzer has written an article on best practices for scheduling Spring (AKA “March”) Break.
Preference-based scheduling (or ‘self-scheduling’) is our thing – in fact, we’ve built our reputation on it. You may have noticed that whether your schedule is built by our expert client service team, or you build it yourself using our tool, there is a lot of schedule customization available for your providers in our app.
However, for departments with coverage challenges, preference-based scheduling during peak vacation time can make it difficult to fill a schedule. Below are some guidelines to help you out.
Step One: Break Up the Break
Trust us, we get that breaking up prime vacation time might cause some grumbling, but it makes time off “fair” and we know that’s important. The key to making sure your team is scheduled fairly over the break is to ensure everyone gets some time off.
Our suggestion: create two blocks of 5 days that cover the Spring Break. Generally, the blocks run Friday to Tuesday, then Wednesday to Sunday. Physicians can select one block to work and one block for vacation.
Step Two: Preference Entry
If you choose to separate the break into blocks you need to decide what constitutes an acceptable amount of availability in each block:
Do providers need to make themselves available for all 5 days (advisable if you are short-staffed) or… can providers make themselves available for less than 5 days on their block?
We have found it best to ask physicians to set the 5 days they have agreed to work as available. This is to provide the flexibility you need to ensure the schedule is filled, but also to ensure everyone works their fair share over the break.
Step Three: Set Up Expectations - What if Everyone Picks the Same Block Off?
This tends to be a rare occurrence but if it happens the best solution is to contact the group; chances are enough people will be willing to step in and provide coverage.
If all else fails and not enough people are willing to make the switch - look at who had it off the year before and ask them to work. This allows for a level of equitability that ensures everyone has a chance to have some desirable time away.
Step Four: Manage Multi-Tenancy and Other Outliers
You’ve set up your blocks, communicated your rules, and managed expectations, now you need to figure out what to do with individuals who cannot meet these expectations. For example, part-timers and multi-tenants (providers they work in other departments), how do you keep things fair?
Providers should only have to work their pro-rata number of shifts, but they should still make themselves available for the minimum number of shifts, per Step 2.
For example, you have a provider who also works in the ED across town. She works about 6 shifts a month in your ED, as well as a number in the other ED. She would still need to make herself available for up to 5 shifts on one block for the break, despite her obligations at the other site. She would only be booked for about 2 shifts but needs to provide the flexibility needed to make this difficult schedule work.
Step Five: Equitability
Essentially, everyone should be working about 32% of their total shift count for the month over Spring Break (10 out of 31 days).
Within our schedule builder we/you can track shift distributions for a custom period to ensure everyone is working their fair share.
Whatever approach you use, it’s important that you communicate the strategy to the team. Just as important, make sure that your colleagues know that scheduling over periods like the Spring Break is difficult, and that while you don’t plan to schedule them for 7 days in a row, they should offer as much flexibility as possible to make it possible to fill every shift.
If you’d like more information on preference-based physician scheduling, how to transition your team to a split Spring Break, or for general tips and tricks on using our application feel free to reach out!
Toll-free: 844-529-5577
