How the roster shapes your free time
It is published in blocks. NHS England's e-rostering good practice guide says rosters should be approved and published at least six weeks before they are worked, ideally twelve, and that staff should be able to view their roster, request leave and book bank shifts from a phone. Your horizon for planning is the last day of the roster you have. Beyond it, nobody knows, including you.
The shift type decides what is left of the day. Names and times differ from ward to ward, but the shape is familiar: an early leaves the evening, a late leaves the morning, a long day leaves nothing, and a night takes the day after as well. NHS Employers' guidance on shift work says a 12-hour shift should be no longer than 13 hours in total with breaks, which is why nobody on a long day is free for anything that evening.
Requests are the one lever you have. They go in before the roster is built. After it is published you are down to swaps.
Bank shifts move the picture. A free Thursday stops being free the moment you pick one up, and nobody else knows unless you tell them.
There is also a legal floor under all of this. Workers generally have the right to 11 hours' rest between working days, though there are exceptions and your contract may give you more.
Getting the roster into Vennado
Use whatever you have: a screenshot of your own roster view, the PDF, or the week typed out in a message. A photo of the printed off-duty is a last resort: it is often misread. If the image shows the whole ward, Vennado asks which name is yours.
It then lists each shift with a date, a start and an end. Check these in particular.
- The codes. E, L, LD and N look universal and are not. Vennado tells you which codes it had to guess. Put in your ward's real times.
- The nights. Each one should start on the right evening and end the next morning.
- Days off, leave and study days. Days off and leave should come through as free. A study day is not free, so mark it busy if it has been read as a day off.
Rota reading can misread, which is why nothing counts until you have looked through the list and confirmed it. The guide to turning a rota into a calendar goes through the checks in more detail.
When the next roster is published, add it to the same plan. If your rostering app offers a calendar feed, you can connect that as a calendar link and refresh it when the roster changes. If your roster includes on-call periods, the setting On call counts as busy decides whether they block a window.
Nights
Unless someone switches off Allow sleep after a night shift, Vennado blocks the seven hours after each night shift ends, so the morning you finish is not offered to the group as free. The first day after a run of nights is still not a normal day off. Planning around night shifts covers what it is good for.
A worked example
Say your roster arrives with one free Saturday in it. You add a screenshot to the plan your friend Ali started and correct a late that had been read as an early.
Saturday, from middayYour one free Saturday. Wednesday works from 7:30pm, and Sunday is a near miss: everyone but you.
- Work shift
- Family and personal
- Everyone free
- Near miss, all but one free
The plan shows that Saturday from midday, once Dev's children have finished football and Jo, a joiner, has finished a morning job. It also shows Wednesday from 7:30pm, your day off, which is long enough for bowling or a quiz.
Sunday is a near miss. The other four are free all day and you are on a long day. The roster is out, so you ask round the ward for a swap, and if you get one there is time for a day out with Dev's two in tow.
If your household runs on two rosters
Two shift patterns under one roof, plus school and childcare, is its own problem. Families covers how each adult adds their own diary and what the others can and cannot see.
What the group sees
A block that says you are busy, marked as work, on call, personal or rest. Not your ward, not your shift code, not your colleagues' names. The screenshot or file is read and then dropped. The privacy notice has the full account.
Questions people ask
How far ahead do nurses get their roster?
Six weeks at least, if your employer follows NHS England's e-rostering good practice guide, which would like twelve. Your trust or employer sets its own timetable, so the real answer is the date your ward's roster reliably appears. Plan up to the last day of the roster you hold.
Can I add a screenshot from my rostering app?
Yes. A screenshot of your own roster view, a PDF, or shifts typed into a message all work. A photo of the off-duty on the wall is often misread, so check every line if you use one. Vennado lists the shifts it read, with dates and times, and you correct anything it got wrong before they count. If the image shows the whole ward, it asks which name is yours.
What about bank shifts I pick up later?
Add them when you book them. Vennado does not connect to rostering or bank systems, so it only knows the shifts you have given it. Open the plan, add the extra shift by hand, and the free windows update for everyone. It is worth doing straight away, before someone books on the strength of a day you have since filled.
How do I use this to decide what to request?
Look past the end of your roster. Vennado shows you as free there, because it has no shifts for you yet, so a day the plan shows as free for everyone is the day to request off before the next roster is built. Inside the roster, a near miss where you are the one person busy is the shift to try to swap.