A shift pattern is a grid, not a number. The same weekly hour total can fit one house well and fit another badly, depending on who is home, which rooms the caregiver uses, and when the day actually needs another person. Before you choose a pattern, draw the house and the day on paper. The sizing comes from that drawing, not from the hour count on a quote.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Step 1: List who lives in the house and when

Write each adult who is in the house, and mark the days and hours each one is there. Include any adult who visits on a regular schedule.

Name and days present: ______________________________

Name and days present: ______________________________

Name and days present: ______________________________

Step 2: Map your parent's day in blocks

Write the day in blocks: waking, washing, meals, outings, rest, and bedtime. Add any block you know is hard, and any block that already has a family member present. Keep each block to the activity, not to a judgment about how it went.

Step 3: Mark where a person should be present

Put a check beside each block where you want a person in the house during the activity. Put a different mark beside each block where a check-in call or a short visit is enough. Count the checks. This count is the first sizing number, and it is different from the total hours.

Checked blocks: ______

Check-in blocks: ______

Step 4: Count the rooms the caregiver will use

List each room and route the caregiver needs: the kitchen, the parent's room, the bathroom, the route from the door to those rooms, and any room that holds the parent's belongings. Note which of these are shared with another household member, and whether that person will be in the room during the shift.

Step 5: Choose a pattern the provider can actually staff

Compare three common patterns on your sheet:

  1. Fixed days, the same shift each week
  2. Split shifts, two short visits in one day
  3. On-call coverage for the blocks that change week to week

Ask each provider whether it can match your checked blocks to a shift, and whether the pattern can change without a new contract. Write the answer next to each pattern.

Step 6: Test the pattern against one full week

Fill in a seven-day grid with the shifts you intend to buy. Walk the grid as if you were the caregiver: start at the door, go to each room, and check each checked block against a scheduled shift. Any checked block with no shift is a gap. Any shift with no checked block is a cost to question.

Signs the sizing is off

  • The grid has more shifts than checked blocks.
  • A checked block falls in a gap between two shifts.
  • The provider cannot say which shift covers which block.

For the order of the wider hiring steps, the Five Steps to Hiring page shows where this sizing sits in the sequence. Bring the finished grid to the in-home visit, and let the provider check it against the house you drew.