Modeling Nurse Scheduling Problem Using 0-1 Goal Programming: A Case Study Of Tafo Government Hospital, Kumasi-Ghana

Abstract

The problem of scheduling nurses at the Out-Patient Department (OPD) at Tafo Government Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana is presented. Currently, the schedules are prepared by head nurse who performs this difficult and time consuming task by hand. Due to the existence of many constraints, the resulting schedule usually does not guarantee the fairness of distribution of work. The problem was formulated as 0-1goal programming model with the of objective of evenly balancing the workload among nurses and satisfying their preferences as much as possible while complying with the legal and working regulations.. The developed model was then solved using LINGO14.0 software. The resulting schedules based on 0-1goal programming model balanced the workload in terms of the distribution of shift duties, fairness in terms of the number of consecutive night duties and satisfied the preferences of the nurses. This is an improvement over the schedules done manually.