Do nurses get holidays off?

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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.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

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..

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Specializes in Critical Care.

That is part of the price you pay by becoming a nurse! I don't like it either and after so many years I wish they would let their senior staff have some holidays and weekends off, but I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

You have to be resourceful to get time off, stay on good terms with coworkers and see if you can switch with them to get the holiday you want off.

12 hour nights have it the worst when it comes to weekends and holidays! So stick with days if you want to have any real holiday!

Don't forget its not just the holidays you'll be sacrificing, its weekends and last minute mandating 16 hour shifts when they are short staffed and you are the cheapest option!

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Unless you work at a bank or govt job, you will more than likely work holidays- even McD's is open on Thanksgiving and New Years.

Are you planning on working the 24 hours before and after the holiday, so that there is no time to get a celebration in?

Do you think a kid cares what day they get their loot? :D

Make the holidays special for YOU- don't let some intermittent situation derail a career - if it's the career you really want. ?

Good luck :up:

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brandy1017 said:

That is part of the price you pay by becoming a nurse! I don't like it either and after so many years I wish they would let their senior staff have some holidays and weekends off, but I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

You have to be resourceful to get time off, stay on good terms with coworkers and see if you can switch with them to get the holiday you want off.

12 hour nights have it the worst when it comes to weekends and holidays! So stick with days if you want to have any real holiday!

Don't forget its not just the holidays you'll be sacrificing, its weekends and last minute mandating 16 hour shifts when they are short staffed and you are the cheapest option!

I worked 12 hour nights, and felt the exact opposite- I could adjust when I slept for a day here and there- no biggie. I had the DAY off ?

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Jmiami said:
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.

I don't have kids, nor do I celebrate holidays. But feel just as entitled to a day off as the next person. Just because someone has a kid doesn't mean their time off is more important than another's.

You should have known being a nurse was going to require holiday work. Who did you think was going to take care of the patients?

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Specializes in Med Surg.
OCNRN63 said:
I don't have kids, nor do I celebrate holidays. But feel just as entitled to a day off as the next person. Just because someone has a kid doesn't mean their time off is more important than another's.

Thank you! My husband and I don't have kids, but do like to celebrate holidays with our families. It drives me crazy when people think that we're somehow less entitled to holidays off because we don't have kids. I haven't encountered that attitude in my current job, but it was rampant in my previous one and I found it very offensive.

OP, sorry, but working holidays is part of working life in many, many jobs, not just nursing. You don't have to celebrate a holiday on the specific day--pick a time/day that works for your family! It's the time together that counts, not the actual time/date itself. If this is a deal breaker for you, however, it's better that you know up front rather than wasting all that time and money just to be miserable.

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Specializes in LTC.

Last year I worked all three holidays. Since I didn't have any kids I volunteered to work christmas morning, I rather had christmas evening off anyway. I hate working holidays and weekends. I guess its something that we sign up for when in bedside nursing.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

What's "Important" about the holiday? Is it the date on the calendar? Because I can pretty much guarantee that jesus wasn't born on december 25, the pilgrims didn't have dinner with the indians on november 24 and independence didn't happen all of a sudden on july 4. Good news! All you have to "Miss out on" is the date on the calendar.

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks -- and you can do that just as well on november 20 or november 26 as you can on the 24th. Or maybe it's about seeing your entire family together at once . . . Again, it doesn't have to happen on the fourth thursday of november. If it's all about eating turkey until you bust and then watching football . . . Sundays are good for that, too. Your two year old is too young to read a calendar -- he won't care if santa comes on december 23 or december 27 instead of the 25th. At twelve, he might think it's cool that he gets all of his presents a day or two before his friends do, or if he gets more loot a few days after christmas because you went shopping at the after christmas sales. And if christmas is all about the religious celebration -- celebrate with the rest of your congregation every other year . . . God will understand if you have to take care of your patients this year. Someone has to.

It's not about the actual holiday . . . It's about all the family or friends or sentiment that goes with it. So pick a day and celebrate then. It's a good lesson about giving back that you can share with your children. And the "Christmas morning" videos will show just as bright and happy a face when your child opens presents on december 26 because mommy had to work the 25th. Really.

The older you get, the more people in your life, and the more complications. Let your kids go to your mother-in-law's house on december 25 when you're working, you take them with you and have christmas the weekend before. Or after. They get two christmases, you get to spend yours with people you love. (well, maybe you love your mother-in-law. But I'm sure you catch my drift.) get over the idea that holidays are about a date on the calendar . . . Even if you never actually become a nurse, there are other things that can interfere with that date. If your family has a tradition of celebrating when you can all get together, that will serve you well even if someone is working, someone is sick or someone is at the in-laws on that holiday.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
Jmiami said:
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.

Who knows, you may find yourself working with people who are more than willing to trade shifts and take the bonus pay for working your holiday. (Like me.)

Sometimes people ask, "Why do you work so many holidays, don't you want to be with your family??"

I always answer, "If I'm gonna deal with a bunch of drunks on the holidays, I am dang sure gonna get paid for it."

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This was my first thanksgiving as a nurse, the stuff I would miss ie. holidays, school stuff, etc was the one obstacle I had to get over before I decided to becomea nurse. We had our big dinner on the 23rd, yes I missed out on a day with my extended family, but well the kiddos and my dh are what's most important. I work christmas eve too but have christmas day off. I also work new years day.

I do know nurses that were able to trade to get the holidays they wanted off,but unless you work in a drs office expect to be working holidays, and don't expect your coworkers to take your holidays, most of mine also have children.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

OP: We were warned on day 1 of nursing school that if we didn't want to work evenings, weekends, holidays, snow days or anything outside 9a-5p, then we were about to enter into the wrong profession. Sick patients don't leave the hospital when you clock out at 5pm, nor do they get snow days, nor does the place empty out for the Thanksgiving long weekend. Nursing is a 24/7/365 profession. We were also warned that the "I have kids" excuse won't fly well in nursing school because it wouldn't fly well in the real world.

Working holidays sucks when you have kids. It sucks when you don't have kids. I've had to do it both ways.

Most facilities will have a holiday schedule so the days are distributed evenly among all staff and the holidays rotate each year. If you're scheduled to work a holiday and want off, they will usually let you change if you can find a replacement to work your holiday for you. Some nurses are happy to swap and take your holiday for you to make the double-time pay or take a shift that they need to be off. Though even with deal-making, expect to be working some holidays.

Of course, land in a doctor's office, and there's no worries about weekends or holidays ?

I've been doing what Ruby Vee's suggested for years, but not as a result of nursing. It's how our family makes holidays work since we're scattered all across the world.

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