A SAT approach to nursing scheduling problem

Abstract

The objective of nursing scheduling problem (NSP) is finding a shift schedule for nurses. According to the nurse’s preference, the working constraints in the hospital and many possible combinations, the NSP become a complex problem and difficult to solve. The goal of NSP is to find a shift schedule in an efficiently way is very important when the problem become more complex. In this paper, we propose that the NSP can be converted into the boolean satisfiability problem (SAT). A shift schedule can be obtained by integer linear programming (ILP) method where satisfy the nurse’s preference and the working constraints. We show that an example is solved by SAT approach efficiently.