Nurse Rostering

Nurse Rostering Problem (NRP) is the healthcare-specific staff-scheduling problem of assigning nurses to shifts over a planning horizon (typically 4-6 weeks), subject to coverage requirements per ward and shift, skill and seniority mix, hard regulatory constraints (max consecutive nights, minimum rest between shifts, weekly hour cap), and preferences (personal day-off requests, fairness across staff). Canonical survey: Burke, De Causmaecker, Vanden Berghe and Van Landeghem (2004) in *Journal of Scheduling*. Modern categorisation: De Causmaecker and Vanden Berghe (2011). The decision is a monthly nurse × day-shift-ward matrix; the typical formulation minimises a weighted sum of soft-constraint violations (preferences, fairness, weekend distribution). Solution techniques span integer programming (MIP), column generation + branch-and-price (J.F. and Purnomo 2005), constraint programming (CP), and metaheuristics (scatter search, tabu search, simulated annealing — Burke, Curtois, Qu and Vanden Berghe 2010). NRP differs from generic shift scheduling by carrying patient-safety fatigue constraints, ward-specific skill fit and a high preference weight.