Absence cover
Someone calls in sick at six. By seven the shift is covered.
Short-notice absence is the single most expensive hour in a ward manager's week, and it is nearly all coordination. Nurvo runs that coordination in a fixed, auditable order.
The cascade
Three stages, always in this order.
The order is not a suggestion the software makes each time — it is configuration you set once, so the same situation is handled the same way on every ward.
- 1
The ward first
People already on the ward who can legally take the shift: rest period long enough, weekly hours not exceeded, qualification a match. They are asked in the app, and the first to accept has it.
- 2
Then the float pool
Internal float staff and anyone who has flagged themselves available for that day. Same checks, same one-tap acceptance — no phone tree, and no manager working through a contact list at six in the morning.
- 3
Only then an agency
If the shift is still open, the external staffing agencies you have on file are asked one after another, with an automatic follow-up until someone confirms. The request names the shift, the qualification and the period — never the person who is ill.
Why agencies are asked one at a time
The obvious implementation is to message every agency at once and take whoever answers first. It is also the one that produces five confirmations for one shift, four awkward phone calls, and an invoice argument a month later.
So Nurvo asks sequentially, with a deadline and an automatic follow-up. If the first agency does not answer within the window you set, the next is asked. Nobody has to remember to chase anyone, and at no point are two agencies both entitled to bill you for the same shift.
What the agency receives is deliberately thin: the shift time, the qualification required and the period. Not the name of the person who is ill, and nothing about why. That is data minimisation under the GDPR, and it is also the answer to the question your works council will ask about external requests — see security and co-determination.
Questions about absence cover
What happens when someone calls in sick?
The absence is recorded in the app. Nurvo then works through a fixed order: people from the same ward who can legally take the shift, then the internal float pool, then the external staffing agencies you have on file. Everyone asked is contacted through the app and by email, and the manager sees a finished proposal.
Does it ask everyone at once?
No. Agencies are asked one after another, not in parallel, with an automatic follow-up until someone confirms. Asking five agencies simultaneously produces five confirmations for one shift.
Who gets asked first?
The order is yours to set. What Nurvo will not do is propose someone whose rest period would be too short, whose weekly hours would be exceeded, or whose qualification does not fit the shift.
What does the external agency see?
The shift time, the qualification required and the period. Not the name of the person who is ill, and no health data.
Something not answered here? The copilot for the cases no cascade covers
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