What it does
A clinical schedule is the container for one cohort's rotation plan in one academic period: who participates, which sites are involved, and how the year is divided into blocks. You can create as many schedules per program as you need — for example one per class year — and each moves through a draft, active, and archived lifecycle.
Who it's for
Program administrators and coordinators who build and maintain rotation schedules, and program directors who review them.
How it works
From Schedules, choose New Schedule, then pick Rotation Schedule or Shift Schedule — that choice sets the schedule's type. The create page then walks through three sections: Schedule Setup (name and optional description), Time & Blocks (the academic period it covers and its block calendar), and Participants & Sites. If the selected program has no academic period yet, the page shows Set up an academic period first instead of the create form, and New Schedule on the Schedules list is itself replaced with Set up academic periods.
Participants. Add participants three ways, in any combination: by role (e.g., all second-year residents), by group tag, or individually. You can also attach the training sites the schedule uses, name additional schedule administrators, and link shift templates when the schedule includes shifts.
Calendar. The schedule either inherits your program's standard block calendar for the period, or gets its own custom blocks — see the block structures article for how that choice works.
Editing and deleting. New schedules start as drafts. Edit name, description, participants, sites, and administrators anytime — each edit to participants or sites replaces the old selection in one save. Duplicate an existing schedule into a different academic year from the schedule list's side panel, choosing whether to copy blocks, assignments, and settings. Deleting removes a schedule from all views, though the platform team can still recover the underlying records.
Delete only works for draft schedules with no active learner assignments. A schedule that's ever been published, or is archived, must be archived (or restored, then archived) instead, to keep its compliance history. If a draft still has assignments, delete is disabled with an explanation. Cancelled assignments don't count against this, so an empty-looking schedule that once had assignments — now cancelled — can still be deleted.
Before you start
You need schedule management access in the program to create, edit, or delete a schedule.
The program needs at least one academic period. If none exist, New Schedule is replaced with Set up academic periods — create one there if you can manage program settings, otherwise ask an administrator first.
Decide the schedule's type — Rotation Schedule or Shift Schedule — up front; you choose it from the New Schedule dropdown before the create page opens.
Have your participant list ready: roles, group tags, or specific people, in any combination.
Do this
Open the Schedules page (
/schedules) → you should see the schedule list with published, drafts, and archived counts. If the program has no academic period yet, New Schedule is replaced with Set up academic periods — use that (if you can manage program settings) or ask an administrator, then come back.Select New Schedule, then choose Rotation Schedule or Shift Schedule from the dropdown → the create page opens with the Schedule Setup section. If you see Set up an academic period first instead, use Set up academic periods, save a period, then select New Schedule again.
In the Schedule Setup section, enter a Schedule Name and, if you want one, a Description → confirm the section shows no error badge.
Open the Time & Blocks section to pick the Academic Period and block structure, then the Participants & Sites section to add participants by role, group, or individual and attach sites → confirm the participant count badge updates.
Select the Create Rotation Schedule button at the bottom of the page → you should return to the schedule list and see your new schedule listed as a draft.
You're done when
The new schedule appears on the Schedules page with Draft status.
The participants and sites you chose show on the schedule when you open it.
No two schedules in the same program and academic period share a name.
Boundaries and limits
Two schedules in the same program and academic period cannot share a name (case-insensitive check).
Block duration, when set, must be a whole number between 1 and 52 weeks.
A single save can link at most 500 combined items: sites, administrators, shift templates, roles, groups, and individual participants. Create with fewer, then add more afterward if you hit this limit.
The schedule list shows the most recently created 1,000 schedules; older ones in very large programs still turn up in the schedule switcher's name search.
Deleting a schedule needs schedule management permission and is a soft removal, not a hard purge.
Delete is blocked for any schedule that's been published, still has active learner assignments, or is archived. Archive it (or restore, then archive) instead.
Schedule status is limited to draft, active, and archived. Learner visibility is controlled separately, by publishing.
You can't create a new schedule until the program has at least one academic period. Opening New Schedule or
/schedules/newwithout a period shows the setup gate instead of the form.
Common questions
Q: Can one schedule cover several class years? A: Yes. Participants are whoever you add — you can mix roles, groups, and individuals. Many programs prefer one schedule per class year for clarity, but nothing enforces that.
Q: What is the difference between block, shift, and hybrid types? A: Block schedules assign people to rotations over multi-week blocks. Shift schedules assign people to defined shifts. Hybrid schedules combine both on the same participant group.
Q: Do learners see a schedule as soon as it is created? A: No. New schedules start as drafts and stay invisible to learners until you publish them.
Q: Why can't I start a new schedule? A: The program needs an academic period first. If you can manage program settings, use Set up academic periods on Schedules. If you can't, ask an administrator to create a period, then return.
Q: I renamed a schedule — did that affect assignments? A: No. Renaming and editing details never touch existing rotation assignments.
Q: Why is Delete disabled on this schedule? A: The tooltip names the exact reason: published, active learner assignments, or archived. Archive instead — it keeps the compliance record. Cancelled-only assignments don't count against delete.
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