Nurse rostering: A complex example of personnel scheduling with perspectives

Abstract

Nurse rostering is an attractive research domain due to its societal relevance, while academics are intrigued by its combinatorial complexity. Descriptions of nurse rostering problems vary largely across the literature, which makes it almost impossible to track down scientific advances of models and corresponding approaches. The present chapter introduces a mathematical formulation of a generic nurse rostering model. It provides common elements present in most nurse rostering research as well as important hospital constraints that are usually omitted from academic models. The new mathematical model satisfies all the basic requirements for future nurse rostering research and practical developments. Finally, the importance of public datasets is discussed, together with the characteristics of the various benchmark instances and research results obtained working on these instances. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.