Create a rota for your
Here is how to create a rota that survives a real week: the order to build it in, the rest gaps that catch people out, and a free tool to build it in.
How to create a rota, step by step
Start with the cover, not the people. In a care home the week is a grid before a single name goes on it: a long day from 08:00 to 20:00, a night from 20:00 to 08:00, twilight cover from 16:00 to 22:00 for when residents need most help. In a surgery it is opening times, phone lines and the Saturday clinic. Write those blocks down first.
Add the fixed facts before the flexible ones: contracted hours, leave already booked, days somebody cannot work. Then the rest gap. According to the Working Time Regulations 1998, most adult workers in Great Britain are entitled to eleven consecutive hours off in each 24-hour period, which is where a hand-drawn rota breaks. Twilight cover ending at 22:00 followed by an 08:00 start leaves ten hours. On paper nobody spots it.
Fill it, check it, publish it, in that order. Shifts stay in draft until you release the week, so a half-finished rota never reaches anyone's phone. The rules you switch on per site put a warning on the shift itself: double-booking, booked leave, caps on hours per day and consecutive days, unavailability (from Plus) and a minimum rest gap (from Premium). They warn rather than block, because whoever holds the rota knows things the software does not.
Build next week's rota tonight
Create a rota in the browser, check it against booked leave and rest gaps, and publish it before the next shift starts.
Start free nowWhy create a rota in medishift?
What a small health or care team needs to create a rota once and keep it right all month.
Create a rota free of charge for up to ten people, permanently, no card details.
Create a rota once, save that week as a template and apply it to another week.
Warnings on the shift itself for double-booking and booked leave, plus unavailability (from Plus) and rest gaps (from Premium).
Staff read the published version on their phone, not just the copy in the office.
Photograph the paper rota you already keep and let Kira read it into a draft week.
Print the week as a PDF for the noticeboard, and mark shifts staff can sign up for themselves.
The rota your team actually reads
Nothing gets in the way when you create a rota around long days, nights, twilight cover and on-call: you name and time the shifts yourself. Create a rota for a whole site, for one work area, or for a named practitioner with a list of who may work alongside them. Prefer a grid you can hand round? The care home rota template lays out the same week in Excel.
You can create a rota free of charge for up to ten people, and that is the free plan rather than a trial with a clock on it: one site, one rota, leave planning, the mobile app. Larger teams pay per person.
When the week changes, and in care it changes, the rota software keeps up. Drag a shift to another day or person and the warnings recalculate. Tell Kira that somebody is off sick all week: she enters the absence, takes them out of their shifts and puts forward colleagues who could cover, with the reason each can or cannot.
Discover the Medishift platform
A comprehensive solution for modern staff planning in medical facilities
Intelligent Shift Planning
Create schedules with week templates, rule system and absence management. The rule system automatically checks working hours, double bookings and unavailabilities.
Vacation Management
Manage practice closures or employee absences. Each employee has their own vacation account and vacation days are automatically calculated.
Mobile App
Via the mobile app, employees can view their schedules, apply for open shifts, submit vacation requests or set their unavailabilities. Admins can also plan on mobile: create and publish shifts, approve absences and use Kira.
High quality starts with your organization
Free yourselves from old tables and manual processes.
Three reasons
practices choose medishift
What drives us and why customers love us.
Maximum simplicity
Our product should feel as simple as possible. We eliminate every unnecessary click and steep learning curve.
AI that takes work off your plate
Kira, our AI assistant, handles the routine: create shifts on command, apply templates and resolve conflicts. You say what should happen, and Kira does it.
Made in Europe
Your data stays in Europe. Fully GDPR-compliant, highest security standards, no compromises.
Features that deliver.
From shift planning to vacation management.
Shift Planning
Vacation Planning
Employees
How to create a rota: common questions
What people ask once they start putting a week together.
Take Your Practice to the Next Level
Create schedules in minutes instead of hours, eliminate manual work, and give your team more planning reliability.
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