Holiday Schedule

Everyone lists choices 1-5
Thanksgivig/Christmas eve/Chrsitsmas/NYeve/new years
Try to give evryone first choice; if not second. keep the list and next yr those who didn't get first choice gets it next
Same for memorial Day/4thJuly and Labor Day
If someone has vacation during a holiday week that is the #1 choice.
Ocasionally two nurses will "split a shift"- 4 hrs each on Christmas

Make a sign up sheet in 4 hour blocks.
Have staff sign up for the hours they want. This has been the best way I have seen.

Create a rotating holiday schedule for staff. One year they work: New Year's Day, July 4th, and Thanksgiving. Next year they work Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Christmas, for example. Trade these groups every year. That's worked the best for me. That way it is fair to everyone.

We do the rotation...I like this and prefer to have it that way. We have three groups so we only work any given holiday every third year (two holidays each year, a "major" and a "minor")

It is very nice that way, and there is no arguing or discussion required when the holidays roll around. You know not days, or months, but YEARS in advance which holidays you will be working!

We use the type of rotation the last 2 talked about. Divide staff into ABC rotation. All the minor holidays divided equally. Thanksgiving, Christmas, NewYear's....you are off the full holiday for one of those and then you work either the eve or the day of the others. So staff knows in January what you are going to be doing for the rest of the year. If anybody wants specifically how we divide it up I would be glad to email you or post it. It's the most fair of any place I have ever worked. It's great for the people doing the staffing.....no whining.

I"m curious -what do you do about the difficult to staff days around the holiday. Such as: day shift, Christmas Eve, Friday after Thanksgiving and New Years Eve day? We are having a real problem with these days, and the scheduling committe now wants to divide the holidays up and include these days.

Can you post the specific way you divide up the holidays? Thanks!

idnurse48, I would love to see the type of holiday schedule you are talking about. We are having the hardest time getting it together here. Can you please email me the schedule? slcouteern@yahoo.com Thanks, I appreciate it.

Some people are just whiners.