Are you a nurse scheduler or healthcare facility manager with a to-do list that grows as the day goes on? When nurse staffing is one of many things under your care, simple mechanisms that streamline the process can have a big impact.
We’re so glad that you’ve chosen Nursa to help you. We are committed to creating solutions that make your job easier, such as our Auto-Schedule feature.
What is Auto-Schedule?
Auto-Schedule is a facility feature in the Nursa app that allows you to reduce the manual effort (and time) put into reviewing clinician profiles and selecting candidates for your posted shifts by automatically assigning clinicians from your Favorites list. Auto-Schedule is meant to help you streamline staffing operations, improve schedule fulfillment rates, and allow you more time to focus on delivering exceptional patient care.
The Auto-Schedule feature is enabled on an opt-in basis, so facilities will need to turn on Auto-Scheduling to get started.
Benefits of enabling Auto-Schedule
So, how does enabling Auto-Schedule on your facility’s Nursa profile benefit you?
Save time—set it and forget it
You can build a Favorite list of registered nurses, licensed practical or vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, and other local healthcare professionals. When enabled, this feature will automatically schedule your favorite nursing clinicians when they request one of your posted shifts. Set it and forget it, saving you time for other important tasks.
Schedule clinicians you know and trust
Facilities that use our app appreciate being in control of who comes to their workplace. Opting in for the Auto-Schedule feature remains true to that promise. It only applies to nursing clinicians on your Favorites list, ensuring that only people you trust can benefit from this feature.
Fill shifts faster
This feature will help you fill shifts faster, reducing the need for you to spend time reviewing clinician profiles and their credentials and manually approving shift requests.
Enjoy the flexibility to choose
Enable or disable the feature at any time. Some facilities use our Auto-Schedule feature only for weekend and holiday shifts, while others use it on all night shifts. This flexibility also allows facilities to “set it and forget it” when schedulers are out of the office.
How to start using Auto-Schedule at your facility
Interested in setting up Auto-Schedule for your facility? Here’s how:
1. Build your Favorites list
Auto-Schedule will only fill shifts with clinicians you have added to your Favorites list in the Nursa app. Here’s how to add a clinician to your Favorites:
- Navigate to the Data menu.
- Select “Clinicians.”
- Search for the clinician you want.
- Click the heart icon next to their name.
2. Enable Auto-Schedule in your account settings
Here’s how to set up the Auto-Schedule feature on the app:
- Navigate to Settings in the left-hand menu.
- Find the new “Auto-Schedule” option.
- Turn on the purple toggle switch next to the buildings or units where you want Auto-Schedule enabled.
3. Post your shifts
By default, any new shift you post will be instantly scheduled when one of your “Favorite” clinicians requests it. If you don’t want to use Auto-Schedule for a specific shift, simply turn off the purple toggle on the “Add Shift” screen.
Note: Once you post a shift, you cannot enable or disable Auto-Schedule for that shift. You can delete the shift and re-post it if there are no requests.
4. Streamline your scheduling
Once your shifts are posted, Auto-Schedule will handle the requests for you, freeing up your time to focus on what matters most. Easily see and monitor the status of your shifts right from the “Schedule” screen.
Tips and best practices to get the most out of Auto-Schedule
Leverage this feature for the most benefit with these tips:
- Build a robust Favorites list from your most active and high-quality clinicians. The more clinicians on your Favorites list, the better.
- Auto-Schedule will only apply to shifts after you’ve enabled the feature. Any shifts created prior to enabling Auto-Schedule will need to be managed manually.
- A shift’s Auto-Schedule status cannot be changed once the shift is posted. To change the shift, simply delete and re-post the shift with any necessary changes.
- Auto-Schedule can be enabled and disabled as much as needed. Try it out and experiment with it. What works best for your facility? Are there certain periods when it is more helpful than others?
- If your shift hasn’t been automatically scheduled at least 24 hours before the shift, we recommend manually checking any pending requests so clinicians have enough time to plan and show up to work your shift.
Why Nursa is committed to features like Auto-Schedule
The challenges facility schedulers must overcome are myriad—long-term recruitment, turnover, last-minute call outs, paid time off for internal staff amidst a nursing shortage, and position vacancies.
We are committed to helping healthcare facilities overcome these challenges by leveraging technology to connect them with local clinicians. More than 1,300 healthcare facilities across the nation are using our healthcare staffing app with great success.
Take, for example, Brookfield Health and Rehabilitation of Cascadia. It’s a skilled nursing facility with an internal staff roster of 80 employees. Brookfield Health switched from using a nurse staffing agency to Nursa because of the flexibility and simplicity our app offers.
“Finding the right amount of staff is the number one pain point in this job…The need for staffing support is a day-by-day question.
“When we’re in a crunch, Nursa becomes the most important part of our processes. The ease of access between my computer and my phone to see if a shift needs to be filled is huge. I don’t have to pick up the phone to call someone for help.”
—Josh Clark, CEO of Brookfield Health and Rehabilitation of Cascadia
Ready to get started? Enable Auto-Schedule today
Set up the Auto-Schedule feature to simplify your PRN scheduling with Nursa even further. Mark the local nursing clinicians you know and trust on your Favorites list in the app. You can enable and disable the feature anytime; find out what works for your facility.
For more information on getting started with Auto-Schedule, including frequently asked questions, check out Nursa’s facility support article.
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