Self-scheduling for nurse: A concept analysis

Quality nursing care must be supported by appropriate nurse scheduling arrangements. Inappropriate nursing scheduling harms nurses’ work. Clarification of terms is necessary to inform nurses and service managers, promote consistent theoretical and operational definitions in research, and develop prevention strategies to provide quality nursing care. This research aims to clarify the meaning of the concept of self-scheduling. The design used is concept analysis. Data sources were searched from electronic databases (Sciendirect, Google Schoolar, Taylor & Francis, SpringerLink, and IEEE). The Walker & Avant method was applied to guide the concept analysis to identify and define attributes, antecedents, and consequences. Self-scheduling has seven attributes: service schedule, flexibility, autonomy, demands, conditions and capabilities, and responsibility. The antecedents include the number of staff, competence, self-efficacy, motivation, work experience, education, age, and career ladder. Proper self-scheduling has positive effects, such as on job satisfaction, work safety, patient safety, and work‒life balance. The negative consequences of self-scheduling include workload, fatigue and stress. The conclusion is that self-scheduling is very important, and the implementation of self-scheduling on nurses' service schedules that are not quite right contributes to shift work and patient safety.