ShiftWizard User Guide. Version 4

Transcription

1 ShiftWizard User Guide Version 4

2 ShiftWizard Program and User Guide 2003 Emergency Medicine Informatics, LLC. All rights reserved. 2

3 Introduction...4 Running the ShiftWizard...4 Starting the ShiftWizard Application...4 Starting a New Shift Description...4 Adding New Shifts...5 Customizing Your Calendar...7 Printing the Shifts...9 Setting Days Off Rules...9 Setting Hours Off Rules Saving Your Shift Description Editing a Shift Description Exiting ShiftWizard

4 Introduction ShiftWizard is a computer aid to making the shift description file for the Scheduler program. The shift description file describes each shift that Scheduler will try to fill. Each shift is described by its start time, length, priority, a site, a descriptive name, and flags denoting if the shift is considered undesirable or a weekend shift. The shift description file may also contain rules for how many days off are required after a staff member is assigned to a particular kind of shift or a number of consecutive shifts. Along with the shifts and rules, you may specify the title for your schedule and the day of the week to begin your calendar of shifts. Shifts are described for each day of the week. ShiftWizard displays a one week calendar. The calendar is empty at first. You fill the calendar with shifts. You may arrange the shifts on each day in any order you wish. When you save the completed calendar, you've created the shift description file. Running the ShiftWizard Starting the ShiftWizard Application To run ShiftWizard, double click on the ShiftWizard Icon desktop. on your Starting a New Shift Description Choose New under the File menu to begin creating a new shift description: 4

5 ShiftWizard will display a (empty) one week calendar: Adding New Shifts To add a shift to the calendar, click on any day of the week. ShiftWizard will highlight the day of the week and display a menu: Click on Add. ShiftWizard will display an Add Shift dialog box: Fill in the Start Time using 24 hour time. Fill in the shift length in hours and (optionally) minutes. Assign the shift a priority. 1 is the highest priority and 9 the lowest. Scheduler fills higher priority shifts before lower priority shifts. Choose a shift name from the drop down list on the left. You may type your own shift names to add them to the list. 5

6 Add a site name to the drop down list on the right. When you add a site name, a small dialog box will appear, asking you for a one letter abbreviation for the site name. This one letter abbreviation will appear on the calendar, next to each shift at the site. Once you've entered a site name, you may choose it from the drop down list. Check Undesirable if the shift is considered undesirable. Check Weekend if the shift is considered a weekend shift. Scheduler recognizes "on call" shifts. An on call shift follows all the same scheduling rules as other shifts except that, when it is assigned to a staff member, it is not subtracted from the number of shifts or hours she is required to work. (See the Scheduler User Guide for more information about on call shifts.) Check On Call if the shift is an on call shift. For purposes of counting weekends off, you may check Weekend if the on call shift is on a weekend. Checking Undesirable or Weekend for an on call shift has no other effect. When you have entered all the information for a shift, click on Ok. The shift will appear on the calendar: Undesirable and weekend shifts will be displayed in red. On call shifts will be displayed in grey. Other shifts are displayed in blue. You may click on the day of the week again to add another shift. The shift will be added to the top of the list of shifts for that day. Alternatively, you may click on a shift and select Add from the menu. This will display the Add Shift dialog box, filled in with the values from the shift you clicked on. You may change any of the values. When you click Ok, a shift will be added to the day with the values in the dialog box. The shift will be added following the shift you clicked on. To change the settings for a shift, click on the shift and choose Edit from the menu. Change the settings and click Ok. To delete a shift, click on it and choose Delete from the menu. You may change the position of a shift in the list by clicking on Move Up or Move Down. 6

7 You may change the appearance of a shift in the calendar by clicking on Format. A Format this Shift dialog box will appear: Checking Bold, Italics, or Underline will cause the shift to be displayed and printed with the respective text modification(s). Checking Skip will add a blank line after the shift on the displayed and printed calendar. You may copy a shift to the clipboard by clicking on it and choosing Copy from the menu. To paste the shift to another day, click on the day and choose Paste from the menu. You may copy all the shifts on a day to the clipboard. Click on the day you wish to copy and choose Copy from the menu. When you click on another day and choose Paste from the menu, all the shifts on the clipboard will be copied to the day. Customizing Your Calendar You can customize the appearance of your schedule calendar by specifying the printed title of the schedule and choosing the first day of the week. To customize your calendar, choose Calendar under the Options menu: A Set Calendar Options dialog box will appear: 7

8 Click on the up or down arrows to select the first (left-most) day of the week to appear on your calendar. Type the title you would like to use for your schedule in the Schedule Title box. There are two special words you can use in your title. If you include the word #PERIOD (use all capital letters) in the title, it will be replaced in your title with the month and year and (if scheduling by a block of days) block number of your schedule. If you include the word #TODAY (use all capital letters), it will be replaced in your title with the date on which you print the schedule. For instance, if you type: Emergency Department Schedule for #PERIOD Printed on #TODAY When you print your schedule, it will look like this: Emergency Department Schedule for November, 2003 Printed on October 20,

9 Printing the Shifts ShiftWizard is designed to print the calendar on 8½" x 11" (Letter size) paper in landscape orientation. You may choose to print the calendar in color or black & white. To set the print color option, choose Printing Format under the Options menu: A Set Printing Format dialog box will appear: Choose Color or B & W and click on Ok. Click on Cancel to leave the option unchanged. You may print the calendar at any time. Click on the Print button. ShiftWizard will display the usual print dialog box for your system. Load your printer with the correct paper and click on OK. Setting Days Off Rules To set rules for how many days off to allow between shifts, choose Days Off under the Rules menu: 9

10 A Days Off Rules dialog box will appear: To make a rule for how many days off to require after a particular type of shift, click on the button next to the shift type and click on the up or down arrows to display the desired shift type in the box. To make a rule for how many days off to require after a number of consecutive shifts, click on the button next to the number and click on the up or down arrows to display the desired number of shifts. To specify a fixed number of days off, click on the button next to "Give n days off", and click on the up or down arrows to display the desired number of days off. To specify a number of days off based on the number of shifts worked, click on the button next to "Give as many days off as were worked". If you use the latter type of rule, you may click on the "+" or "-" button and click on the up or down arrows to set a number to add to or subtract from the number of days worked. To delete a previously set rule, click on the "No Rule" button. Click on Ok to set the rule. Click on Cancel to leave the rules unchanged. Setting Hours Off Rules To set rules for how many hours off to give between the end of a shift and the start of another, choose Hours Off under the Rules menu: 10

11 An Hours Off dialog box will appear: To set a custom Hours Off rule, select the shift type for the rule. Click the button next to Give and select the number of hours off. To remove a custom rule and use Scheduler's default spacing rules, select the shift type and click the button next to No Rule. When you are finished entering rules, click on Ok. To leave the settings unchanged, click on Cancel. See the Scheduler User Guide section on Time Between Shifts for a description of how the standard and custom Hours Off rules work. Saving Your Shift Description Once you are satisfied with your calendar of shifts and your days off rules, click on Save or Save As under the File menu. If you have opened a saved shift description or previously saved one, clicking on Save will save your shift description in the previously opened or saved file. If you click on Save As or have not yet saved your shift description and click on Save, ShiftWizard will display a Save Shifts In dialog box. Choose a file name and click on Save. Click on Cancel to abort saving the shift description. Editing a Shift Description You may edit a shift description by choosing Old under the File menu. Select the file containing the shift description you wish to edit. ShiftWizard will display the calendar for you to edit. Exiting ShiftWizard To exit ShiftWizard, click on the X box in the top right corner or on Quit or Close under the File menu. 11