I did not know about the HealthRota app before coming to RSCH/PRH but I really was amazed with the system. Having all our entitled leave allocated when organising our rota was extremely helpful, compared to other trusts where it would be so difficult to use up all your annual and/or study leave due to staffing difficulties (and therefore contributed to burnout and decreased wellbeing). It is one major aspect that has made me want to consider staying at this trust next year.
Fantastic work that will really make a difference to our doctors – well done to everyone involved. Keep up the great work!
This is such a great system – I have received 100% of the annual leave and unavailable days I have requested in both my clinical fellow job and my current training job. It makes such a difference not feeling that sense of dread when trying to get annual leave granted for important life events and marking unavailable days where you actually want your zero days is so much better than having them randomly allocated to days that are not useful. It is an excellent system and a massive selling point.
This is a very attractive feature when recruiting consultants to our department. I am constantly asked about it by other departments and colleagues in other hospitals. We are in a specialty that is prone to burnout, traditionally under-resourced, low status and with a high emotional burden. It makes a massive difference for those who are full-time clinical but also for those part-time or clinical academics as it allows flexibility and ensures fairness across the rota. It has really changed things for the better – our full-time consultants now consistently get one day-off per week. This has never happened before HealthRota. Our previously very understaffed department is now much better staffed than neighbouring Trusts’ and I think this is (at least in part) down to the implementation of HealthRota for our consultants.
As a new starter to the Trust I have found HealthRota very easy to use. I also really like the iCal feature linking it directly to my personal calendar. The ability to request annual leave and study leave with an ongoing tally of the amount used is also a great feature.
This is such a great system – I have received 100% of the annual leave and unavailable days I have requested in both my clinical fellow job and my current training job. It makes such a difference not feeling that sense of dread when trying to get annual leave granted for important life events and marking unavailable days where you actually want your zero days is so much better than having them randomly allocated to days that are not useful. It is an excellent system and a massive selling point.
HealthRota and the flexibility/annualisation and transparency that comes with it, the work/life balance my colleagues experience following the introduction into our department have all been instrumental in recruiting recently appointed new consultants and current senior registrars being attracted to working at RSCH/PRH and applying for jobs in the near future.
Most other competitors that report to allow self-rostering have got the process a little wrong. I email everyone on the rota and they login and people self-allocate their shifts, but with other systems I would have to ‘ok’ each one of those requests and when you’re looking at almost 2000 shifts every two months, that’s just not possible. The fact that HealthRota almost “crowdsources” this part of it, makes things really quite simple.
I was able to ensure I had my wedding off this year! If I had not been able to do this, I would have had to locum for a year as I couldn’t guarantee the time off in any other job.
Being able to see who is/will be in the working team alongside me for a given shift/shifts is helpful for fostering a team atmosphere in the absence of true “firms” and contributes to wellbeing.
I like HealthRota – mainly because I can see who else is on with me for that day, or when I have to hand the bleeps over in the morning (or collect them from the night shift reg) I know who to contact. Similarly, if on a weekend then I know who will be about.
The HealthRota app is very user friendly. By making rotas visible across specialties, it allows easy communication between teams and safe allocation of staff. In addition, and particularly important for Doctors in Training, it makes requesting leave simple – a task that’s never been straightforward when using different processes in previous Trusts.