Importing Caregivers

The CSV import system is the primary way to add large numbers of caregivers to an event. The import process handles column mapping, automatically discovers facilities and units from the data, detects duplicates, and provides a review step before committing changes.

🔒Requires permission: Caregivers.Import

Overview

The import follows a 4-step wizard:

Step	Name	What Happens
1	Upload CSV	Select and upload a CSV file containing caregiver data.
2	Map Columns	Match columns in your CSV to fields in the system.
3	Review Discovery	Review auto-discovered facilities, units, and specialties. Resolve warnings and errors.
4	Confirm Import	Review the final summary and confirm the import.

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Step 1: Upload CSV

1. Navigate to the event's Candidates tab.
2. Click the Import Caregivers button.
3. In the import dialog, click Choose File or drag and drop a CSV file.
4. Click Next to proceed to column mapping.

CSV File Requirements

Requirement	Details
Format	Comma-separated values (.csv).
Encoding	UTF-8 is recommended. UTF-8 with BOM and ANSI are also supported.
Header Row	The first row must contain column headers.
Maximum Rows	10,000 rows per import. For larger datasets, split into multiple files.
Maximum File Size	10 MB.

Recommended Columns

While the system is flexible about column names (you map them in Step 2), the following data points are recommended:

Field	Required	Description
First Name	Yes	Caregiver's first name.
Last Name	Yes	Caregiver's last name.
Email	Yes	Primary email address. Used for duplicate detection.
Phone	No	Phone number.
Facility	Yes	The facility (hospital) the caregiver is assigned to.
Unit	Yes	The unit within the facility.
Specialty	Yes	The nursing specialty or role type.
Shift Type	No	Preferred or assigned shift (Day, Night, Evening).
Start Date	No	The date the caregiver is available to start.
Agency	No	The staffing agency the caregiver is associated with.

tip

Your CSV does not need to use these exact column names. The column mapping step lets you match any header to the correct system field.

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Step 2: Map Columns

After uploading, the system displays a mapping interface where each system field is listed alongside a dropdown of columns detected from your CSV.

How Mapping Works

1. The system auto-maps columns when the CSV header name closely matches a system field name (e.g., a column named "First Name" auto-maps to the First Name field).
2. Review each mapping and correct any that were not auto-detected.
3. Required fields must be mapped before you can proceed. Optional fields can be left unmapped.
4. A preview row shows sample data from the CSV for each mapped column so you can verify correctness.

Mapping Interface

System Field	Mapped CSV Column	Preview
First Name	first_name	Jane
Last Name	last_name	Smith
Email	email_address	jane.smith@example.com
Facility	hospital	Memorial General
Unit	department	ICU
Specialty	role	RN - Critical Care

5. Once all required fields are mapped, click Next to proceed.

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Step 3: Review Discovery

This is the most important step. The system analyzes the mapped data and auto-discovers the organizational structure from the CSV contents.

What Gets Discovered

The system scans the Facility, Unit, and Specialty columns and builds the three-level hierarchy:

Discovered Facilities:
  Memorial General Hospital
    |-- ICU
    |     |-- RN - Critical Care
    |     |-- CNA
    |-- Med-Surg 3rd Floor
    |     |-- RN - Med-Surg
    |     |-- LPN
    |-- Emergency Department
          |-- RN - Emergency
          |-- Paramedic

  St. Joseph Medical Center
    |-- Labor & Delivery
    |     |-- RN - L&D
    |-- NICU
          |-- RN - NICU

Discovery Summary

The review screen shows:

Metric	Description
Total Rows	Number of data rows in the CSV (excluding the header).
New Caregivers	Caregivers that do not already exist in the event.
Duplicate Caregivers	Caregivers that match existing records (by email).
New Facilities	Facilities found in the CSV that do not exist in the event yet.
New Units	Units found that do not exist under their respective facility.
New Specialties	Specialties found that do not exist under their respective unit.
Warnings	Rows with non-critical issues (e.g., missing optional fields).
Errors	Rows with critical issues that will be skipped (e.g., missing required fields).

Multi-Facility Import

A single CSV can contain caregivers for multiple facilities. The system creates all discovered facilities, units, and specialties automatically. This is especially useful when staffing a strike that spans several hospitals in a health system.

tip

When importing for multiple facilities, ensure the facility names in your CSV are consistent. For example, "Memorial General" and "Memorial General Hospital" would be treated as two different facilities.

Duplicate Detection

The system detects duplicates by matching on email address:

Scenario	Behavior
Email matches an existing caregiver in this event	Marked as Duplicate. The row is skipped by default. You can choose to update the existing record instead.
Email matches a caregiver in a different event	Not considered a duplicate. The caregiver is imported as a new record in this event.
No email match	Imported as a new caregiver.

Error Handling

Rows with errors are displayed in a dedicated Errors section. Common errors include:

Error	Cause	Resolution
Missing required field	A required column (First Name, Last Name, Email, Facility, Unit, or Specialty) has a blank value.	Fix the data in your CSV and re-upload, or acknowledge the row will be skipped.
Invalid email format	The email address is not in a valid format.	Correct the email in your CSV.
Row parse failure	The row has an incorrect number of columns (e.g., unescaped commas in a field).	Ensure fields containing commas are wrapped in double quotes.

caution

Rows with errors are excluded from the import. They are not partially imported. Fix errors in your source CSV and re-import those rows separately if needed.

4. Review the discovery results, warnings, and errors.
5. Click Next to proceed to confirmation.

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Step 4: Confirm Import

The final step shows a summary of what will be created:

• Caregivers to import: Total count of new caregiver records.
• Duplicates to skip (or update): Count of duplicate records.
• Facilities to create: List of new facilities.
• Units to create: List of new units under each facility.
• Specialties to create: List of new specialties under each unit.
• Rows with errors (skipped): Count of rows that will not be imported.

1. Review the summary carefully.
2. Click Confirm Import to execute the import.
3. A progress indicator appears while the import runs.
4. When complete, a results summary is displayed showing the number of records created and any issues encountered.

tip

After the import completes, navigate to the Facilities tab to verify the auto-discovered hierarchy and the Candidates tab to review the imported caregivers.

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After the Import

Verifying Imported Data

Where to Check	What to Look For
Candidates tab	All imported caregivers appear with correct names, emails, and assignments.
Facilities tab	The facility/unit/specialty hierarchy matches what was discovered.
Requirements / Fill Rate tab	Shift requirements may have been auto-calculated based on imported data. See Shift Requirements.

Importing Additional Caregivers

You can run the import process multiple times on the same event. Each import:

• Adds new caregivers that do not already exist.
• Detects duplicates against all previously imported caregivers.
• Discovers and creates any new facilities, units, or specialties not already present.

Correcting Mistakes

• Wrong facility/unit/specialty assignment: Edit the caregiver's assignment on the Candidates tab.
• Misspelled facility or unit name: Rename it on the Facilities tab. All associated candidates are updated automatically.
• Need to re-import: Delete the affected caregivers and re-run the import with corrected data.

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Permissions Reference

Action	Required Permission
Import caregivers via CSV	Caregivers.Import
View imported caregivers	Caregivers.Read
Edit a caregiver's assignment	Caregivers.Update
Delete a caregiver	Caregivers.Delete
Manage facilities/units/specialties	Facilities.Update

Troubleshooting

Import button is not visible

Your account does not have the Caregivers.Import permission. Contact your administrator.

CSV file is rejected at upload

Verify that the file is a valid .csv file, is under 10 MB, and uses UTF-8 encoding. If the file was exported from Excel, ensure it was saved as "CSV UTF-8" format.

Large number of duplicates detected

This usually means the same CSV was imported previously, or the caregivers already exist in the event from a prior import. Review the duplicate list to confirm, and choose whether to skip or update existing records.

Facilities appearing with slight name variations

Ensure facility names are consistent across all rows in the CSV. Leading/trailing whitespace is trimmed automatically, but differences in spelling, abbreviation, or punctuation will result in separate facility records.