Interactive Nurse Scheduling.

Repeatedly solving nurse scheduling problems is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for nurse managers. Although software solutions exist to solve nurse scheduling problems automatically, they are limited to cases in which scheduling rules can be easily formalized and are relatively stable. In other cases, nurse scheduling problems must be solved manually. Thus, this article proposes a new general method for solving nurse scheduling problems that overcomes the limitations of existing methods by introducing human-computer interaction. The solution is based on not only the computer's algorithmic logic but also the nurse manager's knowledge and experiences. We tested the method in a large hospital. The results show that our method also can be used for cases in which fully automated nurse scheduling is not feasible and that it performs better than manual scheduling. In addition, the time spent on scheduling decreased by 80%, and nurse satisfaction with the schedule increased.

The impact of color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs.

The paper investigates the impact of text and background color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs. The legibility of 56 elementary color combinations was tested by 308 participants. The first task required the participants to identify 21 uppercase alphabetic characters selected and presented in conformance with a Snellen chart in various color combinations. For each color combination, the number of correctly identified characters was recorded as a visual performance measure. In the second task, participants subjectively rated the legibility of color combinations on a ten-point Likert scale. The results show that neither the Le Courier legibility table nor the CRT legibility table is appropriate for LCDs. A new legibility table is proposed for LCDs where the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with positive polarity whereas for CRT displays, the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with negative polarity. The findings of this study can be used to determine the best possible color combinations when developing content displayed on LCDs.