Do nurses get holidays off?

[Jmiami]

Some have kids, some don't. Some value Thanksgiving and Christmas over the New Years holidays. How often do you find yourselves working important holidays? I have a 2 YO and am looking forward to a nursing career, but if that means missing out on my daughters thanksgivings and christmases growing up it does make me think twice.

[FlyingScot, RN]

juzme said:

WOW...I agree...what the heck is with all of the attacks about people who have children shouldn't expect the holidays off. etc.?! geez...

Seriously, calling them "attacks" is really exaggerating. Nobody is attacking anyone. OK there was one post that was mildly rude but pretty much all that has been posted are reasons that childless people get tired of being expected to work the major holidays. As someone posted earlier, the reason we get a little testy about it is because most of us have experienced that attitude...repeatedly. We know that the OP doesn't have that expectation...the discussion drifted to it's current focus because we are coming into that season. Do you think that people should be entitled to having Christmas off just because they have kids at the expense of the childless ones?

[Lynx25, LPN]

FlyingScot said:

Seriously, calling them "attacks" is really exaggerating. Nobody is attacking anyone. OK there was one post that was mildly rude but pretty much all that has been posted are reasons that childless people get tired of being expected to work the major holidays. As someone posted earlier, the reason we get a little testy about it is because most of us have experienced that attitude...repeatedly. We know that the OP doesn't have that expectation...the discussion drifted to it's current focus because we are coming into that season. Do you think that people should be entitled to having Christmas off just because they have kids at the expense of the childless ones?

Exactly. I do not WANT children- and I have planned my life as such. (Hey, it's cheaper! ) It annoys me when people act like they have squirted out the next Pope.

It's not directed towards the OP either, I think it was just a point they made, and a tangent popped up somewhere along the way.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

FlyingScot said:

Seriously, calling them "attacks" is really exaggerating. Nobody is attacking anyone. OK there was one post that was mildly rude but pretty much all that has been posted are reasons that childless people get tired of being expected to work the major holidays. As someone posted earlier, the reason we get a little testy about it is because most of us have experienced that attitude...repeatedly. We know that the OP doesn't have that expectation...the discussion drifted to it's current focus because we are coming into that season. Do you think that people should be entitled to having Christmas off just because they have kids at the expense of the childless ones?

Excatly. I never attacked anyone in my post.

I tell you before I go off to my manual handling training, that I've actually had a psychotic NM ring me at 3am to go do a shift in ED (weird time I know) and say to me: well you don't have a hubby or kids so you should be doing these shifts! She also TOLD me - didn't ask me mind you - that I HAD to do the shifts she told me to.

I quit not long after. I often wonder if she was ringing the people with kids & telling them they MUST do certain shifts, or going out at 3am (she rang at all times, I wonder if the woman ever slept).

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Kooky Korky said:

Perhaps the difference is that your father was gone for only 2 years. For those like nurses, cops, fire fighters, others who work in 24/7/365 professions, it's the same battle every single year for 30, 45 years or so. And for many of us, not seeing the kids open their presents on Christmas is a very painful thing. Or missing the family dinner of TG, or the picnic on the 4th or Jewish holidays if you're Jewish or whatever. Depending on what shift you're working, sleep enters into the equation, too. So it's not just "a few hours".

I know there are pains and sacrifices that lots of people make. Yet, some of us sacrifice more than others and it's, like I said, every year for a great many years. It gets mighty old and hurts worse each year, seems like.

My father served 27 years in the military, He was not gone for "ONLY TWO YEARS:. He was gone for most of my childhood.

Even when he had a rare occasion and was not deployed, you could not count on things not to change.

During those years, my fellow military brats and I went on the squadron picnics, only to have one of their fathers shot down....to be declared MIA, with no closure. We lived in fear of the black sedan driving into military housing, and prayed that it would not come to ours, but feel guilty that you know what it means for the family it does visit.

Implying that it was merely 2 years, is probably as rude or more so than the individual that used the term knocked up to describe those with children.

As it stands, my father became a police officer after leaving the military. And we dealt with him getting shot at, later being a victim of a hit run, while directing traffic around an accident site (was hit by a drunk 17 year old on a bridge and knocked into a river - 8 separate fractures in his leg and monthes in a cast). We also got threats from the local white supremacy group when he was witness to a crime committed by those associated with that group. he also still had to work on holidays, and we found ways to celebrate together, despite that. He remained with the Sheriff's dept until he was fully disabled, two years before his death.

In most cases, a nurse will be able to spend time with his/her family on the holiday, just not all day. The children can learn to wait until Mom and Dad are home, or can get up early. Or can open presents on Christmas Eve. This is a privilege that many do not have.

And if thaat is not good enough, there are plenty of jobs out there, in Nursing and in other professions that one can take to gain that fulfillment and spend that time with their family. No one forces a nurse against their will to work in a 24 hr/7 day/365 day per year service.

There are plenty of of professions that do not have that leeway. And during the Vietnam war with the draft (though my father volunteered), there were men that were never given any choice.

Through such challenges, many of us learned adaptability and resilience. And a certain amount of patience and ability to wait, notably lacking by many young people today.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Quote

Everyone with kids or without is not the same. Some people don't give a crap about the holidays kids or not and some people didn't really care UNTIL they were parents. Such hostility against people with children.

It isn't hostility.

It is fatigue born of dealing perpetually with those that feel like having children means that they should have every holiday off, never work during a snowstorm or hurricane, or take an isolation case/total care pt during any second of their pregnancy.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

I will admit that I CAN get a little hostile and not just over this issue.I find my self getting more and more intolerant of ill-behaved kids everywhere I go.I have been tripped by too many running brats in the grocery store and hobbled by too many strollers.Don't we teach kids manners any longer?

I also have little patience for the elderly now-I used to allow any older seemingly frail person get in line in front of me just about anywhere but the bad behaviors of the ones I care for on a daily basis have ruined me.

I can't stand this feeling of entitlement that our entire society seems to now have.....

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I personally am not hostile toward people with kids - I have them myself. What I am hostile toward is the sense of entitlement that, for some, seems to come with having them.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Can we get back to this talk about double pay??? :| lol

[PeepnBiscuitsRN]

Sun0408 said:

We have a set schedule set up once hired.. We are A or B and the holidays are split between the two. Once assigned you work this set of holidays year one, then year two you work the other set giving you the previous worked holidays off.. It works very well..

Same here (heh, maybe we work at the same hospital?) I have to (wah) work Christmas this time around and it will be my 10 month old's first Christmas. But...it is what it is. We have the opportunity to call the staffing office and get our name on the holiday list. That would be nice for certain, seeing as I gave up my New Years (which I initially had off) to a co-worker. She's young, her boyfriend is out of town, she wanted to be with him on New Years- my hubby and I have a 3 year old and a 10 month old- so...we don't do much for that one.

You could always look at a regular outpatient clinic- they're usually Monday-Friday and often closed or early hours on holidays.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

It's not just nursing where u work holidays.

I worked a lot of hospitality when I was and wasn't studying to pay the bills (I wish I could send them to Bill and get him to pay them! lol)

I remember my then fiancee coming down to the pub (bar) to hang there till I finished later, then we went home & had a midnight feast (I think it was Xmas).

And I agree re the sense of entitlement for people with kids. I also agree with a previous poster who said the elderly have a bloated (my word) sense of entitlement. I've been nearly knocked over by badly behaved kids during the hols & by badly behaved older people. I've also been hit in the back of the legs by an old lady on her motorised scooter, who probly couldn't drive, and when I fell to my knees, she couldn't have given a hoot, just drove off - and this was in a shopping centre!

After reading most of these responses, I also remember my gf telling me she was @ work during the day - and her daughter took her first steps. She missed out on it & was always sad, but I said to her you got to see her walk when u came home though. She said it's not the same thing.

Bottom line is: you WILL miss out on special events with your kids, if you don't want that to happen don't do nursing or any shiftwork job, & be a stay at home mum.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

Celebrations can be movable feasts. You don't have to celebrate Christmas on the 25th- Santa could come to your house early or late since Santa knows you'll be working.

My parents are divorced so we grew up with Mom Xmas and Dad Xmas a few days later. It was actually kinda nice to get presents in two sittings.

[WyndDrivenRain, BSN, RN]

It really depends on the job you have as a nurse. I worked holidays my first couple years but then I moved into positions that didn't require I work on holidays. I used to volunteer to work 11-7 the night before Thanksgiving or 11-7 Christmas eve so other people could have the night off but other than that I didn't work holidays. You have to find the job that goes with your lifestyle. You might not get that out of the gate but within a few years you'll be able too.