Title: A new mathematical model for the assignment of nurses to operating rooms

Authors: Islem Hmidet; Ines Rekik; Jihene Jlassi Elmabrouk

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of Sfax, Tunisia ' Higher Institute of Industrial Management of Sfax, Tunisia ' Higher Institute of Industrial Management of Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: The nurse scheduling problem is one of the major operational issues in the healthcare field. This problem is concerned with assigning a number of shifts to a number of nurses in order to meet the needs of the hospital. Face to the lack of human resources, especially nurses, in Sfax Habib Bourghuiba Tunisian Hospital case study, and in order to ameliorate the quality of care in this hospital, the presented work is articulated about the Central Operating Room where patients need high-level nursing skills and care. In this paper, we suggest a new mathematical model based on integer programming for formulating and solving the problem of assigning nurses to operating rooms. Aiming at minimising the difference in workload between the various nurses and taking into account the competence of each nurse, the proposed model is meant to determine the nurses' assignment plan to the various surgical operations being performed in the appropriate operating theatres. Based on the collected real data from the Habib Bourguiba's University Hospital Center, numerical results show balanced and more fitful assignments. Hence, service quality has been enhanced as stakeholders' satisfaction has improved.

Keywords: integer programming; nurses assignment; nurses competence; operating room; workload balance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLEG.2023.136937

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation, 2023 Vol.10 No.4, pp.386 - 406

Received: 01 Aug 2023
Accepted: 09 Nov 2023
Published online: 29 Feb 2024 *

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