A Branch-and-Price Procedure for Nurse Staffing Incorporating Roster Preferences

Managing, recruiting, keeping the right staff, and deploying resources efficiently are key challenges for the healthcare industry in the coming decennia due to the increasing elder population and the corresponding increasing demand for care and caring personnel ([16]). Since the quality of care ultimately depends on the quality and motivation of health human resources, personnel problems should be appropriately addressed since staff shortages or unmotivated health workforce are likely to have adverse effects on the delivery of health services and outcome of care. A key factor is the organizational support to employees which is especially revealed in the personnel staffing policies and scheduling practices conducted by the health organizations. On the one hand, it is of critical importance to deploy efficiently the available personnel since this is a large determinant of service organization efficiency and customers’ requirements satisfaction in providing the continuity of care. On the other hand, [7] identify unattractive schedules and high workloads as two important factors leading to discontentment and a high nursing turnover.