Holiday policies- what does your unit do?

[NICU_Nurse]

How do you guys work out the holidays? Are they mandated? If so, how many are you required to work? Do you use the lottery system? Ranking most wanted to least wanted? We've been given the opportunity to try something new and we're looking for suggestions, particularly for night shift.

Currently, nights works a bit differently from days. We are put on Plan Blue or Plan Red- One plan works the night before Thanksgiving, Christmas Night, etc. and the other plan works opposite. The issue we're having is twofold:

1) For Thanksgiving, night shift gets SCREWED. If you work the night before, you are coming off of a 12 hour shift- who wants to celebrate after that? If you work the night of, you are supposed to be sleeping during the day when everyone is celebrating.

2) For Christmas you cannot go out of town, etc. You either work Eve or Night, no exceptions, rather than Eve and Night one year, then off for both the next year.

I am intensely curious as to how others do this. What do you do about new people/new grads? Do employees who've been there get any special treatment after so many years, or do all employees get the same deal?

Thanks!

[Antikigirl, ASN, RN]

Last month we all filled out a sheet on what holidays we were willing to work (had to pick two!), on a scale of 1-4. I picked thanksgiving (yeahhhhhh didn't have to cook!) eve (I work swings), and Christmas eve (hubby will be home with the kids, and then he works Christmas day...and I have that off to be with the kids). So I have Christmas day, New years eve day and new years day off!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!

I had to giggle the other day...I went to work and asked if I could wear a santa hat on Christmas eve for fun...the charge nurse said "I don't know...what about our pts that don't celebrate it...that is getting to close to religious preference". I nodded and stood next to the brightly decorated Christmas tree we had in the lobby..and said "really..wow!". We both laughed!!!!!!

[wjf00]

We work 1 'major' holiday, either Christmas or New years, alternating between the two from year to year. Union contract. We can trade or ask someone to work for us. I always work for someone.

[jmgrn65, RN]

Our Holidays are Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and New Years Day. We have to work 3 a year and what you work this year you don't work next so forth. Divided into 2 groups one is Memorial Day 4th of July

Labor Day Thanksgiving

Christmas New Years Day

The major holiday thanksgiving christmas and New years day, if you are off the holiday then you will work the day before of after.

IMHO this is just the fact of hospital work.

No favorites are played, everyone is put in a group when hired and then that is what they work, sometimes they can pick which group they want to start out in. People can also trade or get PRN people to work for them.

[Plagueis]

Where I work, nurses and CNAs who are scheduled to be off on a holiday, such as someone who is off on Mondays, are off on that day. They don't change the schedule to make them come in. They tried once to change the schedule to do that, but there was quite a protest. However, we can request a holiday off, but priority goes to those who worked the holiday the previous year. Seniority doesn't come into play unless two people request the same holiday off, and both worked the holidays the previous year.

[CHATSDALE]

i have worked in facilities which had a 4on2off rotation and if your day was off you got a holiday if not you worked

when i worked weekend option i worked 16 hours, only 8 was holiday pay

on holidays

many facilities will not allow anyone to take vacation days from thanksgiving thru newyears day

i like the idea of the major/minor holidays, health care is 24/7 but it is good to be fair to everyone

[BabyNurse513]

Our holidays are paired in 3 groups. Memorial day and Thanksgiving, 4th of July and Christmas and Labor Day with New Years Eve. We rotate each year so this year I worked Labor day and New years, next year I will work Memorial day and Thanksgiving etc. It is really nice having to only work 2 holidays a year especially the winter holidays. Having Thansgiving and Christmas off this year was great! Summer holidays you only work the day of, winter holdays it is the eve and the day except thanksgiving which is the day of and the day after. You are allowed to trade as long as everything is covered. This is the third hospital I have worked in and the best and most fair holiday polcy.

[ragingmomster, BSN, MSN, RN]

Our unit does a three way rotation. This year Christmas Day, next year Christmas Eve, third year, both off. This rotation is called a "track".

Thanksgiving and New Year's don't seem to be issues.

When new staff are added to a track they are added in order to make the tracks even. So if you are new and get added to the year off track, well too bad, you have to work one or the other anyway, just because you are new. Then you go on with tracking so that you work part of Christmas 3 years in a row.

Worse yet, if you are on the Eve track your first year, that would mean you are on the off track in your second year. But too bad, all new staff has to work the first two years on some part of Christmas. Then you go on to work on the first track Day and the second track Eve, and you end up working 4 years in a row on Christmas. (confusing? yes!)

Best part is, very few nurses make it to the fourth year straight.

Worst part is, other units in women's services section work either Day or Eve, noone gets the whole holiday.

[lauralassie]

we use the screw the night shift over method. if you work nights, you have to work either the holiday night (which is the eve of the holiday if you work 12 hours). that kind of works out ok, cause you can get a little sleep. if you are scheduled off the holiday, you come in the day of the holiday at 1900. so no matter how you look at it you end up working or sleeping the holiday. day shift is the same , but if you work the eve you get off at 1900 and can enjoy the holidays. i remember when they used to do every other, if you were off xmas you worked new year etc.. that worked out well. we could trade the holiday, if someone didn't care about one holiday, they could trade with some one who wanted that day off.

[ggfifirn05]

At my facility, we are required to work every 3rd weekend; so when hired we are assigned to either A, B or C weekend. This weekend designation is what determines which major holiday we have to work. Last year, the A weekend group worked Thanksgiving Day (as well as the Saturday & Sunday after since it was "our" weekend), this year we work Christmas Day and next year (well, really 2008) I will have to work New Year's Day. Unfortunately, December 23 and 24 this year falls on the A weekend, so we have to work those 3 days in a row (I rarely schedule myself to work 3 shifts in a row).

We complained to our nurse manager about this being unfair, but it ended up being "too complicated" to inconvenience staff from the other weekend groups to cover the day shift on December 24 for us. Its not so bad for me, since my children are grown, but I really feel bad for those who have small children at home or wanted to travel out of town for the holiday. By the way, the A weekend people also ended up working Easter and Memorial Day weekend this year (our facility does not consider those "holidays"). And did I mention we do NOT get any holiday pay; just our regular weekend shift differential.

Fortunately, I have some PTO available, so I am taking off the ten days before the 23rd to celebrate a bit early.

[divanurs]

We are in the same boat at my hospital. Usually the holidays are scheduled by "good faith" meaning if you worked it last year, you have it off this year. However, the last 2 yrs have gone out the window. I work 12 hour nights, weekends in a 13 bed ICU and have been at my hosp for almost 11 years. I have never had both xmas eve and xmas day off at a time, always worked one or the other. There are nurses who seem to think that since they worked one of those days last year, they need them both off this year.

There are only 9 night rn's and our mgr is sched 3-4 per night, so in my mind amost all should be sched one or the other. Not the case. Last year 3 of the nurses had them both off, and worked new years. Both hols fell on weekends so my sched was pretty much a mess already; same as this year.

I met w/my manager about this, and showed her the totals of hol hours worked per nurse. The nurse with the least seniority has only 8 hours, while myself has 44!!! I have to say I was a bit miffed. (she also has a 5 day w/e over xmas and is oot over New years, pretty nice huh!)

We are currently looking to change this for 2007, and I have suggested the sign up sheet for preferences. I've read posts saying this seems to be a good idea. Any feedback will be taken back to my manager to try to troubleshoot this.

Thanks!