Nurse Scheduling Model in the Inpatient Department with Overtime Balancing: A Case Study of a Hospital in Ratchaburi

A. In this article, we formulate the nurse scheduling model in the inpatient department by using integer programming.The case study was conducted at a hospital in Ratchaburi, Thailand, with the objective of minimizing the number of overtime shifts while ensuring an equitable distribution of both regular and overtime work hours among nurses, in compliance with hospital policies.After obtaining the integer linear programming model, we solve the optimal solution using Python.The results show that the number of regular and overtime shifts of each nurse was equal, with reduced working hours compared to the manually arranged schedule by the nurse supervisor, and in accordance with the hospital's policies.In addition, we stimulate an increase in the number of nurses to reduce overtime.We also find the minimum number of nurses needed so that all nurses will not have to work overtime.