The University Medical Center Rostock will soon be offering people who are working in the nursing profession or are thinking of re-entering it more flexible working hours, which can be seen as a departure from the normal three-shift system. The hospital is thus the first German university hospital – but the sixth hospital in Germany – to respond to the shortage of skilled workers by implementing such an innovative working time model. In the Netherlands, the flexible working time model is now fully established, allowing medical students and single parents to benefit from variable working hours that can be selected according to their specific needs. But also pensioners who help out and people who otherwise feel restricted because of their hobbies can now apply to work in the „UniFlexTeam“ concept of Rostock University Medicine. If they are hired, there will be a duty roster in which every member of the UniFlexTeam should sign up, says project manager Caren Erdmann, who will adapt the duty roster to the special wishes of the team, because demographic change and also the ever-increasing shortage of specialists have helped university medicine to rethink its approach in this field. Even when absent due to illness, other nursing staff can step in if they have time, explains Annett Laban, who is a member of the nursing board.
