<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><i><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>PhD Thesis Defense<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Nurse Scheduling Optimization in a General Clinic and an Operating Suite</span></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Arezou Mobasher<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Friday July 22, 2011, 2:00 P.M. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Industrial Engineering Conference Room, Engineering Bldg 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A common problem in healthcare systems worldwide is nursing staff shortages combined with the uncertain nature of patient workloads. Assigning each available nurse to the right place at the right time to do the right job is a major concern among many healthcare organizations. In this dissertation, the nurse scheduling problem is addressed by developing optimization models and efficient solution algorithms for both general clinics and operating suites. Multi-objective mixed integer programming models are developed for the nurse scheduling problem in a general clinic where both nurse shift preferences as a proxy for job satisfaction and patient workload as a proxy for patient dissatisfaction are considered in the models. Daily nurse assignments are established upon various attributes such as case specialties, procedure complexities and nurse skill level and lunch break assignments. A column generation scheme as well as several heuristic methods have been developed to efficiently solve the nurse scheduling problem in an operating suite. This research is a collaboration with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The actual data obtained from MD Anderson cancer Center is used to validate the proposed models.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>