Zuyderland uses Stageplanner for internships

Internship planning at Zuyderland with Stageplanner

Zuyderland is a large healthcare institution in the south of the Netherlands. Their office arranging internships faced a significant challenge when the software they used for planning internships was no longer supported. With a large number of different locations and many applications for internships every year, they had to find a new solution quickly. By selecting ‘Stageplanner’, an application developed by Bizzomate based on Mendix low-code, their planning process for internships has now become much more efficient. In addition, Zuyderland now has central insight into all healthcare internships, which may be useful for applying for subsidies in the future.

Hundreds of internship applications a year
Zuyderland is the largest healthcare institution in the south of the Netherlands. The institute consists of an organization that provides (home) care to elderly people and a medical centre with locations in Heerlen, Sittard-Geleen, Kerkrade and Brunsum.

The Zuyderland office arranging internships receives many requests from students for internships every year. When the internship planning software was no longer supported, a significant new challenge arose. The number of suppliers who had planning tools for this purpose was limited. In addition, it was virtually impossible to schedule all requests manually without good software.

To keep processing internship applications quickly and efficiently, Zuyderland was looking for a new supplier who could deliver an application that could easily be adapted to their specific needs. The application also had to be intuitive and easy to use allowing multiple employees to work with it. It was also important that the application ensured that students were matched with the departments that answered their needs best. For greater efficiency, as many tasks as possible had to be performed automatically.

 Thanks to the regional collaboration with MUMC+, another regional medical centre, Zuyderland then came into contact with Stageplanner. This is an application based on Mendix low code developed by Bizzomate which was already in use in MUMC+. Zuyderland chose to further develop Stageplanner with Bizzomate to make it suitable to their needs in the Zuyderland as well.

In the months that followed, Bizzomate implemented the basic application at  Zuyderland. Because every healthcare facility has a complex environment, carefully adapting Stageplanner to the specific needs of the institution is crucial. However, because Stageplanner is built on the Mendix platform, functionality can easily be added. 

During the development process, Bizzomate was in constant contact with department managers of the nursing departments of Zuyderland. Paul van Putten, responsible for training healthcare staff in Zuyderland: “I am very satisfied with the cooperation with Bizzomate during this process. In our complex environment, needs are constantly changing. Stageplanner has been optimised for use in close collaboration with Bizzomate and our nursing departments. The application is now operational in various departments. That number is expected to increase rapidly in the coming period.”

Deploying students more efficiently
The Zuyderland internship office can now easily add the information they have received from a student or educational institution to Intershipplanner. This includes the internship period, the teaching days and the learning objectives. This planning information is then sent to the heads of the nursing departments, the central planners who draw up the duty rosters and the training officers who monitor the learning climate. They make the final schedule based on this information.

Optimizing student scheduling
Paul van Putten: “The employees who receive information from Stageplanner are very satisfied. They can now schedule students much more efficiently. Because Stageplanner also offers us a central overview of all available internships in our institution, it is much easier to quickly find the right student and match them with the right department.”

Useful when applying for a subsidy
Every healthcare institution in the Netherlands receives a subsidy for a student who is going through an internship. In the past, it was difficult to get a complete overview of all interns in Zuyderland. Thanks to the arrival of Stageplanner, central insight is now possible for all students who are going through internships there. With the subsidy module, which may be implemented in the future, information required for the various subsidy applications can be collected by simply pushing a button. In addition, Stageplanner points out when information required for a student is not yet complete so that the subsidy applications are always correct and complete.

Van Putten: “I would like to expand the use of Stageplanner even further in the coming period. Currently, only healthcare students are included in Stageplanner. The students who are going through medical training are not added to the application yet. By also adding these students, we gain even better insight into all available internships in our healthcare institution.”

Connecting with other systems
In the long run, Van Putten also sees connecting the various Stageplanner applications in the region as an opportunity to help students even better: “Sometimes students knock on our door when we are unable to offer them a suitable internship. If the Stageplanner applications in this region were connected, it would be much easier for us to offer such a student an internship in another healthcare institution.”

Stageplanner can eventually also be connected to other systems for students within the current environment of the Zuyderland. Van Putten: “Stageplanner has already greatly improved the opportunities for students in the Zuyderland, but I see even more opportunities. Connecting Stageplanner to Calibris Competent, our system for assessing, measuring and coaching students, and to our Learning Management System creates an even better overview of students and their talents. We have about a thousand internships available every year. By expanding Stageplanner even further and connecting it to other systems, all interns will eventually end up in the place that suits them best.”