How a hospital nursing roster works

The roster

One row per team, one column per day of the cycle. The cycle then repeats.

Shifts per 28-day cycle

How the 28 day cycle works

Set three 8 hour nursing shifts: morning 7 am to 3 pm, evening 3 pm to 11 pm and night 11 pm to 7 am. Team A begins MMMEENN: three mornings, two evenings, two nights, then the blocks roll through evenings, nights and rest across the four weeks. Teams B, C and D follow the same 28 day string offset by a week. On every date the four teams sit on the morning, evening, night and rest slots, so each shift has a crew and one team rests. Short blocks and a clear handover protect patient safety at each change.

• M is morning, 7 am to 3 pm.
• E is evening, 3 pm to 11 pm.
• N is night, 11 pm to 7 am.
• O is a rest day; each team gets seven a cycle.

Hours per week worked out

Each team works 21 of the 28 days on 8 hour shifts. Twenty one shifts of 8 hours is 168 hours over four weeks, which is 42 hours a week on average. The eight hour shift matches the OSH Code ordinary day, so a clean roster carries little overtime; extra duty called beyond the roster is paid at twice the ordinary wage rate with consent. Nurse to patient ratios and ward needs may push some extra shifts, so track the overtime and comp off carefully month by month.

Who the pattern suits

This roster fits inpatient wards, intensive care, maternity and emergency units that need steady cover with safe handovers. Short blocks keep nurses fresh and share the night load, and the seven rest days allow recovery. Skill mix matters, so make sure each shift has the right senior and junior mix, not just the right numbers. Women make up much of the nursing workforce and may work nights with their consent and the safety conditions the government sets, including safe transport and secure rest areas.

Pros

• Short blocks keep nurses fresh across three shifts.
• Rotation shares the night load fairly.
• Seven rest days fall in each 28 day cycle.
• Eight hour shifts match the ordinary day.
• Clear handovers protect patient safety.

Cons

• Frequent changes can disturb sleep.
• Skill mix per shift needs careful planning.
• Ward surges can force extra shifts.
• Night blocks are hard despite short runs.

Set it up in ZeniaHR

1. In the shift catalogue add the morning, evening and night nursing shifts with code, timings, break, full and half day hours, grace, and the night flag with a colour.
2. Build a rotation template with a 28 day cycle of short morning, evening and night blocks, and offset the four teams by a week each.
3. Assign the roster by ward using bulk assignment over up to 92 days, then read the per employee roster with each nurse before the cycle starts.
4. Use the live board filtered by department and shift so the ward sister can see who is on each shift and who has missed a punch.
5. Set the overtime policy and comp off so extra ward duty is counted, approved by manager then HR, and paid at or above twice the ordinary rate or banked as comp off.
6. File night punches that cross midnight to the shift day and turn on the missed punch out alert so a supervisor is told when a night shift does not close.

Frequently asked questions