What the check shows
- Hours a week for the last 4 weeks and the next 4, from your past and upcoming shifts. How hours a week are counted.
- Night shifts. Night hours are 22:30 to 06:30, the 8 hours when the most people are asleep (American Time Use Survey). A shift that covers at least half of them is a night, with the hours when more people sleep counting more: 19:00 to 03:00 covers 58% and is a night; 18:00 to 02:00 covers 45% and is an evening.
- Quick returns: less than 11 hours from the end of one shift to the start of the next, as research defines them. Why 11 hours.
- Your longest stretch of days in a row, your weekend shifts and your holiday shifts.
- A risk score for each shift: its injury risk compared with an 8-hour day shift after days off, from its time of day, the shifts in a row before it and its length (Folkard and Lombardi, 2006). It climbs with each night in a row, so a single night scores only a little above a day shift. Time off between shifts is not part of it. How the score works.
- Hours a week and night shifts for each month the calendar covers.
Where to find your calendar link
In your scheduling app, look for Sync, Subscribe, iCal, iCalendar export or Calendar feed, and copy the link that starts with webcal:// or https://. If the app asks whose shifts to include, pick only your own.
Most scheduling apps offer the link so your shifts can show in your phone's calendar. If your shifts are in another calendar, use the page for that app:
What happens to your calendar
Capillary's server fetches a calendar link once and, unless you choose to save it, keeps neither the link nor your shifts. It sends back only each entry's start and end time, and which ones it left out as on call or short: no titles, places or notes. Your browser does all the counting, and the results go nowhere.
A calendar file stays on your device. Your browser reads it.
If you save your calendar to a free account so it stays up to date, Capillary keeps the link or the file, encrypted, for up to 24 hours while you sign up. When you open Calendars in your new account, it's added there and the saved copy is deleted.
Anyone who has your calendar link can see your shifts, so don't post it anywhere public.
If a number looks wrong
- Check the time zone. Calendar times without a zone are read in the one you choose.
- Some entries are not counted at first: entries under 3 hours, such as meetings, and sick call, on call, backup, jeopardy or standby. If you work during call, in the hospital or from home, check the box under the results to count it. All-day entries, such as vacation days, are skipped.
- A calendar shows the time you were scheduled, not the hours you worked.
- A shift across a clock change counts its real hours: a 12-hour night when the clocks fall back is 13 hours.
Common questions
- Is the schedule check free?
- Yes, and it needs no account.
- Does Capillary keep my calendar link?
- Not unless you save your calendar to a free account. Then it's kept encrypted for up to 24 hours, until your account adds it to Calendars, and the saved copy is deleted.
- Why are my on-call shifts left out?
- Sick call, on call and backup count only when you work during them, so they start uncounted. If you work during call, check the box under the results to count it.
- Which scheduling apps work?
- Any app that gives you a calendar link starting with webcal:// or https://, or lets you download an .ics file. Most do, so that shifts can show in a phone's calendar.
- Why is my 19:00 to 03:00 swing shift counted as a night?
- It covers 58% of night hours (22:30 to 06:30), and the check counts a shift as a night from half.