NurseGrid App, a calendar with messenger for nurses to help them manage their shifts easier

One of the biggest headaches for many nurses is scheduling. Seeing who you're working with, trying to switch shifts, can be real trouble, especially if you're trying to organize all things amidst the chaotic shifts where patients are your only worry.

Despite all the advancements in technology that have enhanced the efficiency of healthcare, scheduling seems to be still stuck in the pen-and-paper era.

Most nurses still manage their schedules through this old-fashioned method, but constant changes in shifts and important status updates, require different, more efficient methodology.

There are online systems that many hospitals use, but they're often pretty difficult to navigate and use, and they don't allow nurses to communicate with their colleagues. Most importantly, these systems cannot be carried around, which limits their use at the bedside.

Mobile phones can be a solution. They can allow nurses to text their colleagues, or use calendar and alert features. But, this still isn't an automated process, which means that nurses still have to rely on their occupied minds.

Mobile apps can be an even better solution. But, there are not many apps designed to help nurses with this important issue.

This is the reason why one emergency room nurse created NurseGrid, a mobile app that allows nurses to add their shifts, monitor their schedules, swap shifts, and communicate with fellow nurses with a few taps on their mobile phone.

NurseGrid app operates separately of any existing hospital or clinic scheduling systems, allowing any nurse to manage their personal work schedule.

However, if nurses want to coordinate their calendars, swap shifts, or share their information with others, the NurseGrid app provides a streamlined tool for that purpose.

Upon downloading and opening the app, you'll be required to register an account by providing the most basic information about yourself, i.e. name and email address.

The next step after registering an account would be adding the place of your work. This step is optional, however, it's important for properly using the app's features.

To add your facility, start typing its name in the search field and the autocomplete feature would populate the list as you type. This works pretty fast, and NurseGrid app includes most (if not all) hospitals and healthcare facilities across the U.S. After you've chosen your facility, you can proceed and add unit or department.

The app will ask you to invite your colleagues to join NurseGrid, but you can skip this step for now and proceed to add your first shift.
Here you can add event type, which is Regular Shift by default, but you can set anything here, from work shifts (On Call, preceptor) to availability for work and swaps to personal events, such as vacation, payday, education, meeting, etc.

If you haven't added your worksite, that will be the next step, along with start and end time. Finally, you need to tick all the days in the calendar for a particular event. 

For example, if you work 12-hour shifts three days a week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), you'd create Regular Shift event and tick that 3 days for just one week or for a couple of months in advance making it a recurring event. If you have a seminar that takes place on Tuesday from 8 PM to 9:30 PM, you'd create a separate entry for that event, and so on.

After creating a shift, you'd be redirected to the main page and My Events tab featuring calendar with all events you've entered, i.e. shifts, meetings, paydays, etc.

You can tap on the particular date for a quick shift lookup, or edit or delete an event. Here you can view all your colleagues working during a particular shift, or add photos via ShiftSnap to share fun moments.

There's also a bell icon on calendar page you can use to enable the reminders for the events and configure notifications for each.

Besides your own working days, you can tap on other days in the calendar and view your colleagues' shifts, where you can set your availability in case of On Call shifts, or if your colleagues need to swap a shift with you.

Holidays are also marked on the calendar so you can see which one of your colleagues are working on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas, or you can swap those days with them. There's Swaps tab for that, but basically, the view and the options are the same as in My Events tab.

Open Shifts tab allows you to invite your shift manager to join NurseGrid so the app can reach them for open shift requests and swap approvals right in the app. These requests and approvals will show up in Activity section.

Once you've invited your colleagues, you'll be able to see them in Colleagues section. Inviting them also enables messaging feature, you can use to chat with them.

NurseGrid app obviously makes scheduling and managing of shifts a lot easier. However, there's another feature that stands out – job listings. Unemployed nurses or those who want to change their workplace can use this feature in Profile section to search for jobs. Jobs can be filtered by location, distance, type, and specialty.

In the Profile section, nurses can also add and view their workplaces, add credentials and diploma, edit profile, or contact support.
Keep in mind that any change in schedule, shift, or calendar requires an Internet connection, so Wi-Fi is a must if you want to use this app.

Overall, NurseGrid is a well-organized and easy-to-use app that every nurse should consider if they need a convenient solution to manage their shifts and schedules, swap shifts, message their colleagues, or look for jobs across the country all-in-one spot. 

Benefit: All registered nurses would benefit from this app