What this nurse duty roster is for
A ward needs nurses on the floor for all 24 hours, every day, and the roster is how the nursing superintendent or ward in-charge makes that happen while giving each nurse weekly offs, a fair share of nights and enough rest between shifts. In most Indian hospitals the roster is still drawn on paper or in a basic Excel grid, corrected by hand when someone falls sick, and photographed to the ward WhatsApp group.
This template is for nursing superintendents, ward in-charges and HR staff in hospitals, nursing homes and clinics with 24-hour wards. It uses the standard three-shift day common in Indian hospitals, morning 07:00 to 14:00, evening 14:00 to 21:00 and night 21:00 to 07:00, and checks the two things that matter most: that every shift has the required number of nurses and that no nurse is rostered in a way that breaks your rest rules.
It is a monthly ward roster, one sheet per ward. Hospitals with several wards keep one file per ward or one tab per ward in the same workbook; floating or pool nurses can be added to any ward's sheet for the days they cover.
What is inside: Ward Roster and Rules
The Ward Roster sheet has a header with Ward name and Month. Each row is a nurse: Nurse Name, Grade (for example staff nurse, senior staff nurse, ANM or GNM as your hospital classifies), then Days 1 to 31. Each day cell takes one code: M for morning (07:00 to 14:00), E for evening (14:00 to 21:00), N for night (21:00 to 07:00), OFF for weekly off and L for approved leave.
To the right of day 31 are per-nurse counts: total M, E, N and OFF for the month, each a COUNTIF across the row. Below the last nurse are the daily coverage rows: for each day, the number of nurses on M, E and N, counted with COUNTIF down the column, alongside a Required row for each shift that you set once. A Shortage row shows the gap and turns red where scheduled is below required.
The Rules sheet holds the constraints you want enforced: maximum consecutive nights (commonly 3 to 4), minimum rest after a night run (commonly a full day off), minimum hours between shifts (an evening followed by a morning gives 10 hours, which many hospitals allow; a night followed by a morning gives zero, which none should) and weekly offs per month. Helper columns on the roster count consecutive N codes per nurse and flag violations.
- Per-nurse night count: =COUNTIF(C5:AG5,"N"); OFF count: =COUNTIF(C5:AG5,"OFF").
- Daily coverage for night on day 1: =COUNTIF(C5:C40,"N"); Shortage: =Required − Scheduled.
- Consecutive-night check: a helper that flags any four in a row, e.g. =IF(AND(C5="N",D5="N",E5="N",F5="N"),"Check","").
- Night-then-morning check: =IF(AND(C5="N",D5="M"),"Rest","") copied across the row.
How to make the roster for the month
Set the Required row first: how many nurses each shift needs for that ward's bed count and acuity. A 30-bed general ward might run 4 on morning, 3 on evening and 2 on night; an ICU runs closer to one nurse per two beds on every shift. Enter approved leave as L before anything else, then place weekly offs so that each nurse gets at least one per week and no more than two consecutive weeks pass without one falling on a weekend.
Fill nights next, because they are the hardest to staff and the most constrained. A common Indian pattern is blocks of 3 or 4 nights followed by a day off, then evenings, then mornings, so that shift timing moves forward around the clock rather than backward. Then fill evenings and mornings until the Shortage row reads zero for every day.
Print or PDF the roster at least a week before the month begins, share it, and record swaps by changing the codes and noting them in a comment. The per-nurse counts tell you at a glance whether nights are shared fairly; if one nurse has 9 nights and another has 3, rebalance before publishing. The hospital staff attendance and nurse rostering guide goes deeper on patterns for ICU, OT and general wards.
- Use data validation on the day cells so only M, E, N, OFF and L can be entered.
- Colour the codes with conditional formatting (nights dark, offs grey) so the grid reads visually.
- Keep last month's file; the last few days of it determine who can start on night this month.
How to customise it
Change the shift timings on the Rules sheet to match your hospital; some run 08:00 to 14:00, 14:00 to 20:00 and 20:00 to 08:00 with a 12-hour night, or two 12-hour shifts. If you use 12-hour shifts, replace E with a D code for 08:00 to 20:00 and adjust the Required rows; the 12-hour shift schedule template covers crew-based 12-hour rotations if that suits your ICU.
Add a Grade-based coverage check if your policy needs at least one senior nurse on every shift: a COUNTIFS on the day column and the Grade column for the senior grade. Add codes for training days (T) or deputation to another ward (DEP) and exclude them from the on-floor counts.
For pool nurses who float between wards, add them at the bottom of each ward's sheet with their code only on the days they are assigned there, and keep a small consolidated sheet that COUNTIFs across wards so a pool nurse is never on two wards on the same day.
Rules and compliance for nurse rostering in India
Hospitals are covered by the state Shops and Establishments Act or a state clinical establishments law, and the working-hours framework of the Labour Codes now applies: a cap of 48 hours a week, overtime at not less than twice the ordinary rate, and a weekly rest day. Check your state's Shops and Establishments Act for daily hour limits and spread-over; most cap 9 hours a day with spread-over of 10.5 to 12 hours.
The 7-7-10 pattern of three shifts keeps each within statutory limits but the 10-hour night means a nurse on 4 consecutive nights has worked 40 hours in 4 days; give the day off that follows without fail, and count night hours correctly for overtime. Women on night duty are permitted under most state rules subject to consent, safety and transport conditions, which many states have written into their Shops and Establishments rules; confirm your state's conditions.
Rest between shifts is not fixed in Indian law for hospitals the way it is in some countries, so it is a policy matter; write your rule on the Rules sheet and make the roster enforce it. The night shift glossary entry summarises how night hours are usually defined and paid.
When the Excel roster stops working
The roster in Excel struggles at the point of change. A nurse calls in sick at 20:30 and someone has to find a replacement, tell them, update the sheet and inform the ward, all by phone; the next morning the file and the ward group disagree. Leave approved in one system is not reflected in the roster in another. Nights are counted at month end, when it is too late to rebalance.
Nurse duty roster software keeps the same grid but adds what Excel cannot: the roster is published to each nurse's phone, swaps are requested and approved in the app, approved leave blocks rostering automatically, and attendance is marked at the ward with face verification or GPS so the roster and the actual presence are one record. Attend Mitra's nurse duty roster software is built around the M/E/N pattern, and the healthcare industry page shows how hospitals use it across nursing, housekeeping and security staff.