Work Schedules in Senior Care – Where It’s Good To Be Predictable

When I was younger, I would have been insulted if you called me predictable. I wanted to be seen as adventurous and spontaneous. But I have to admit, as I have gotten older, being predictable isn't all bad. In fact, I think being predictable is complimentary and speaks to one's transparency and consistency.

And that's how I think schedules should be in long-term care and senior living - predictable, transparent and consistent. My daily routine is as predictable as it comes - I wake up at 5:30am, get ready, watch some news (SportsCenter is news, right?), run to Starbucks, grab a cup of coffee, and arrive at my desk at the same time everyday. It completely throws me off if something gets in the way of this. So it made sense when I read in a couple recent McKnight's articles that many senior careworkers struggle when their work schedules are unpredictable, and that the American Nurses Association recently made a recommendation that employers should get their nurses’ input when creating schedules – and that they should be "regular and predictable." 

In a recent book, Unequal Time, researchers Dan Clawson and Naomi Gerstel at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst studied a “high-end” nursing home that had low turnover levels, consistently high occupancy, and consistent staffing levels. This sounds like an ideal work envirnment, but despite all that they had going for them, one out of every three shifts did not match up with the planned schedule – someone was either working when they weren’t originally scheduled to, or someone hadn’t shown up for their scheduled shift. This just goes to show you that the worklife for many caregivers within long-term care and senior living is unpredictable because staffing is a dynamic process with constant shift updates including call-offs, time-off requests, employee no-shows, and fluctuations in census. The authors went on to say that these unpredictable work schedules “create havoc in workers’ lives” when they can’t plan ahead.

Policymakers have taken notice and recently introduced the “Schedules that Work Act” earlier this year to compensate workers for when schedules become unpredictable. While this is a start, there are things that providers can do right now to be proactive. By implementing technologies like OnShift, long-term care communities can add consistency to work schedules by easily replicating a master schedule based on predefined staffing requirements so that the right employees, with the right skills, are assigned to the correct shift. In addition, OnShift predicts potential gaps in schedules so that they can be filled well in advance. This extra time gives caregivers the chance to adjust for these changes - improving their home/work-life balance, something Clawson and Gerstel make a point of mentioning as being crucial.