Nurses must be available 24 hours at health care organizations. This means that shift working is an absolute necessity. However, available nurses cannot be arbitrarily rostered to shifts. Nurse roster management must accommodate the constraints on shift allocation, and other kinds of constraints such as nurses’ entitlement to vacations and other kinds of absences.
Yet another problem is the skill mix of nurses. Nurses with the right mix of skills must be present during each shift. Otherwise, the quality of health care will suffer. On the other hand, employing too many staff to accommodate all contingencies will increase costs beyond acceptable levels. It is through effective nurse roster management that an attempt is made to meet both the quality and cost objectives.