Table 2.

Overview of main themes and subthemes.

Main themes	Subthemes
Organisation of the scheduling process	Distributed responsibilities and decision making
	Time-consuming
Active leadership	Establishing a shared responsibility framework and fairness
	The individual relationship with the employee: continuous dialogue, mutual problem solving, and adaptations.
	Managing dissatisfaction
	Education, support, and clear scheduling rules
Balancing sustainable working hours, employees' scheduling requests, and competence needs	Official/unofficial guidelines for sustainable working hours
	Employees' scheduling requests versus sustainable working hours
	Considering recovery opportunities
	Competence mix on shifts
Contextual factors	Staffing levels, short-term absence, and solutions
	Working procedure at the wards
	Working time arrangements for night work
	Technological enablers and barriers for sustainable working hours