An Efficient Modeling Approach for Nurse Rostering Problem: Use Case

This paper addresses the nurse rostering problem, aiming to create an eight-week cyclic schedule that ensures an equitable distribution of work hours among nurses while adhering to a complex set of constraints. Two different modeling approaches are proposed. The initial model, incorporating strict hourly constraints, proved computationally infeasible using the CPLEX solver. By reformulating the constraints to focus on shift counts that inherently satisfy total working hours, the computational complexity was significantly reduced. The improved model efficiently provides optimal solutions on real data, demonstrating that different modeling techniques can lead to vastly different outcomes in terms of solution time and efficiency.