Editing Shifts

	Introduction Shifts are displayed on the rota booking forms according to the setup of shifts for a particular day. The Shift Calendar allows the assigning of a shift pattern to a particular day. The shift pattern defines the shifts available, the rates of pay and specific restrictions for each shift. When a shift pattern is assigned to a particular date the booking forms then use the setup defined in the shift pattern.  The Default Shifts option defines which shift patterns the Shift Calendar should use for each day of the week and for bank holidays, and the Shift Calendar can then be used to override the shift assignments set up in Default Shifts. When a set of shift patterns is defined in Default Shifts, a starting date is also provided, so the Default Shifts entered are then active from a given date. This allows a complete change in the shift patterns being used from a given date, without having to override each shift in the Shift Calendar. Default Shifts, Shift Calendars and Shift Patterns are all associated with a particular rota. In all the following instructions, before any action is taken the system will always ask for the rota (or booking form) which will be viewed or edited.  The shift pattern used for any date can be seen by either looking at the Shift Calendar, or on the booking form by hovering the mouse over the date in the left hand column of any day.  N.B. When editing shifts patterns which include dates already booked, you MUST not remove shift from the pattern. Also, you may only add shifts "to the right" of the exisiting shifts. If you are not sure, remove all the shifts from the rota/column which is being edited for all the days affected before making any changes. Not doing so can result in "orphaned" bookings i.e. bookings that exist on the system but which can no longer be seen on the booking forms. Default Shifts The Default Shifts option is used to define the shift patterns which should be used from a given date.   In the above setup, new shift patterns have been introduced on the 1st Jan 2005, the 1st Apr 2005, 1st May 2005, 1st April 2006, 1st Jan 2007 etc. Note that it is not necessary to change the shift pattern  on the first day of a month, it can be changed mid month. Days that share the same working pattern should be assigned the same shift pattern. This reduced the amount of work needed to set up a new shift pattern. The "Holidays" column shows the shift pattern which will be assigned automatically to known holidays - normally Easter, May Bank Holidays, August Bank Holidays, Christmas and the New year. If set up for Northern ireland, the system will use NI holidays instead which include St Patricks Day. In the above from the 1st January 2007 the shift patterns are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: week, Thursday: thusp, Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays: wkend, and from  1st September until the 30th September, the default shift patterns are Monday to Friday: week, Saturday: sat, Sunday: sun and Bank Holidays: bhol. On the 1st October the shift pattern is changed to Monday: mon, Tuesday: tue, Wednesday: wed etc. The defalt shifts define the names of the shift patterns which will appear in the Shift Calendar. Add New Default Set is used to make a new line in the list. You can add a set between two existing sets by selecting the appropriate date. This option provides the following screen:     Select a date and the names of the required shifts and press ADD. It is also possible to edit an existing entry - you cannot edit the date, only the shift pattern names. To change a date it is necessary to delete the entry (using the Delete option) and then use Add Entry to add a new entry in it's palce.  Shift Calendar The Shift Calendar shows the shift patterns which will be used for each day and allows the administrators to  override the default shifts (set up in Default Shifts). This shows the shift calendar for August and September (reflecting the Default Shifts set up above). The shift patterns follow the patterns set up in the Default Shifts (in August, thursdays use "thusp", and weekends are "wkend"). Bank Holidays are shown in red. This highlights the fact that the system has inserted a special shift pattern for a holiday. In Septemberm the 23rd is shown in green and uses the special shift pattern "bhol" which has not been taken from the Default Shifts. Green depicts that the default shift has been overriden. To override a shift pattern for a given date, simply click the date in question, and at the bottom of the calendar a selector will appear where the new shift pattern can be selected:   In the above the 19th (19 week) has been clicked, and the selector allows the shift pattern to be changed. Choose the appropriate shift from the drop down list and click "Update". To remove an override (shown in green), simply click the override (23rd in the above screen) and the system asks for confirmation before deleting it: Editing Shift Patterns So far we have looked at the way in which shift patterns are assigned to a day.   To edit a shift pattern, select the rota (or booking form) and the name of the shift pattern. If the shift pattern does not yet exist, select NEW and the system will ask for a shift pattern name. The browser will then display the shift pattern:   N.B. The shift patterns shown can be quite different to those on your own system. In particular, the names of the shifts, the shift patterns, and the options available are all dependant on the options and setup of your own system. In the above system there is provision for Nurse Practitioners sharing GP shifts, Trainer GP's and EOC practitioners. Each of the shift names (which have been set up for you when the system was built) will occupy one column in hte rota booking form and one slot going down the screen. In the above we have shown only the first slot (Morning) which will occupy one column on the booking form. The fields to fill in in each box are as follows:   Shifts - This is the number of shifts to show on the booking form - each has to have the identical values. If any of the subsequent values vary, then a new entry should be made (using Add Entry). The new entry will still occupy the same column in the booking form, but can have different criterion from adjacent boxes. In the above, the "Morning column" will have two shifts each with different start and end times. Start & End - The start and end times for the shift. Times are entered using the 24 hour clock. If the end time is BEFORE the start time, it is on the next day. Rate - the rate of pay for this shift. This is an hourly rate UNLESS the "Rate for Shift" option is ticked. Night Rate - This is the hourly rate of pay for the shift during the night hours. Night hours are defined for your system when it is set up, but are usually from midnight to 8am. Rate Code - If your system uses rate codes, this is a cross reference into the rate code table. Rate for Shift - If ticked, the Rate is not an hourly rate, but reflects the payment for the whole shift. Available to NP's - If ticked this shift can only be booked by a Nurse Practitioner for the number of days specified in the "Hold to NPs". After the given number of days, the shift can be booked by GPs or NPs. GPs will get the Rate for the shift, whilst NPs will get the NP rate. NP's Rate - The rate of pay if a Nurse Practitioner books the shift. Hold to NP's for (days) - How many days to allow exclusive access to Nurse Practitioners. Not User Bookable - If this box is ticked, the shift cannot be booked by a user (GP, Nurse, Driver, etc.) but has to be booked on their behalf by an administrator. The users will not even see the shift as being available on the system, but will see it blacked out - once it is booked, they will either see their own name in the rota form, or the word "BOOKED". Trainer GP - If ticked, this shift can only be booked by a GP Trainer. This can be used to ensure availability of sufficient training shifts. Emergency On Call - This is an optional Capability. Capabilities can be set up on a system and capabilities can be given to individuals. If this box is ticked, only users with the given capability will be able to book the shift. There is no limit to the number of capabilities that can be set up on a system, and capabilities can be user type specific - thus Nurse Practitioner is a capability that can only be given to nurses and Trainer GP is a capability that can only be given to GPs. After completing a box, press UPDATE and the changes will be written to the system. Booking Integrity When editing shifts or the shift calendar, it is quite possible to make a request that would hide an exisitng booking, so when a change is requested, the system checks all existing bookings to see if any of the existing bookinmgs would be hidden. If the system detects that this would happen, a message is displayed explaining the issue and listing the shifts which would be compromised as a result of making the change: Primacy of Existing Bookings When a booking is written to the bookings system, the times and rates and all settings made when the shift was set up are written to the booking itself. If the shift is subsequently changed (say the rate is changed), then the existing bookings are not changed and will retain the original values. If the shift is unbooked and rebooked, then the new values will be used, but if the shift is swapped or sold, the rates and times set at the time the shift was booked will prevail. An example will help explain: Christmas day is by default a "holiday" and will use the default holiday shift pattern unless overridden. After the shifts have been released and some have been booked, it is realised that the standard bank holiday rate is not correct for Christmas Day, but the shift pattern (ie. number of shifts and start/end times are correct). An administrator creates a new shift pattern for Christmas Day which is a copy of the bank holiday shift pattern except that the rates are increased, and uses the shift calendar to assign that shift pattern to Christmas Day. The result is that those shifts already booked will not reflect the enhanced Christmas rates of pay, but will still be on the bank holiday rates of pay. The only solution to this is to unbook and rebook those shifts on behalf of the users, so that the shifts will now reflect the new rate of pay. Introducing a New Rota Pattern or New Rates of Pay It is always best to make large changes ahead of any shifts being booked as invariably the booked shifts are likely to have to be removed and re-inserted to the new pattern. The best way of going about the change is to do the following: Add a new Default Shift Pattern from the start date of the new regime - use a completely new set of shift pattern names so they do not interferre with exisitng shift patterns. If the shift pattern is the same for all week days, enter the same name against each week day. Use the minimum number of different shift patterns to describe the week. Use Edit Shifts to create the new shift pattern. If a shift pattern is based on an existing shift pattern, when editing an empty shift pattern it is possible to copy the existing pattern on which the new pattern is based by using the Copy facility (which is available at the bottom of all the shift only when the shift pattern being edited is completely new). Remember to edit the shift pattern created for bank holidays as well. This shift pattern is often a copy of a saturday or sunday shift pattern with different rates of pay, so it is useful to copy the saturday or sunday shift pattern when creating the bank holiday shift pattern and then simply change the rates of pay. If you have had to delete some bookings prior to adding the new default shift pattern, remember to enter them bafk onto the new rota sheet. Making Changes to One Day Only It is sometimes necessary to make changes to the rota which are specific to that date. The ideal way to go about doing this is as follows:  Using Edit Shifts, select the location and leave the shift pattern as "NEW". Press "Select". Use Shift Calendar, select the location and lookup the date for which you wish to make the change. The existing shift pattern for that date is shown. Make a note of it. You can also get the shift pattern being used by opening the booking for for the rota and hovering the mouse over the date in the left hand column. Enter a name for the shift pattern code. A suggested name would be referencing the date that the pattern will be used for, such as "wed020408" for Wednesday the 2nd April 2008. Click "Add Shift". An empty shift pattern is then displayed on the screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and use "Copy Shiftcode Information" selecting the existing shiftcode for that date as found step 1 above. The shiftcode information is filled in. Make any changes to the shiftcode, remembering to press Update for each box. Go back to the Shift Calendar and select the location and date. Click on the date and change the shift code to the new one you created in step 2. The system will check that no zombied shifts would be created by this change (there may be if you deleted any of the shifts when in step 5 above). If there are would be any zombied shifts you can either : Delete the booking prior to making the change. Add the shift back in Edit Shifts, so that the booking will still be valid. Check the rota to ensure that the date you have changed looks correct.