vuorona

Vuorona is a Finnish noun that denotes the period during which an individual or group has responsibility to perform tasks, typically within a planned schedule. It is commonly used to describe a shift or turn in work, service, or other organized activities, and can refer to a single shift or to the general idea of taking turns.

The word comes from vuoro, meaning turn or shift, with the suffix -na forming a noun that expresses the state or occurrence of having a turn. In everyday language, it is common to hear phrases such as “Minulla on tänään vuoro” (I have the shift today) or “on vuorossa” (it's on duty / up next).

Vuorona is widely used in contexts that rely on rostering and repetition, such as hospitals, factories, retail, public services, and volunteer organizations. It also appears in scheduling discussions and rosters to indicate which person is responsible during a given period, and in phrases describing the process of handing over duties between shifts (vuoronvaihto).

Related terms include vuoro (the turn or shift itself), vuorotyö (shift work), vuoronvaihto (shift change), and työvuoro (work shift). The concept of vuorona thus helps organize continuous operations and fair distribution of workload by delineating when each participant is responsible for duties.