PLEASE HELP! How does your hospital do holiday rotations for night shift staff?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Neuro, critical care.

We need a new holiday policy for our night shift! Currently, we have a rotating schedule where you are either "on" or "off" the different holidays of the year.

If you are schedule to be "on" a holiday, you are required to sign up for the 12-hr shift on the EVE of the holiday. If you are "off" the holiday, you are required to sign up for the 12-hr shift on the actual day of the holiday! Notice how you never really get a holiday off with this system?

My manager is willing to change the policy if I can submit some proposals to her in writing. Before I submit my own ideas I would really like to know how the holiday rotation works at other facilities for the NIGHT SHIFT staff. How do you schedule holidays so that there is adequate coverage and so the rotation is fair for all the staff? Please be specific as to how it works so I can make my proposals.

THANK YOU! :)

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

We are required to do 3 of the 6 winter holidays. Which are:

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving

Xmas Eve

Xmas

New Years Eve

New Years

We all right what are 1st 2nd 3rd choice are to have off, as well as the three we want to work, then based on seniority. Choices are made. Not everyone gets what they want, but seems to be the most fair.

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I just started a new job and was just informed that the "eve" is the night shift that gets the holiday pay. I can see this for Christmas and New Years, but I'm working Thanksgiving night shift, so everyone that works Wed night gets holiday pay and gets to be home with their families for Thanksgiving, while I'm working the actual holiday, miss the meal with my family (which we are military and not from here, so they'll be home by themselves, not really doing anything, since I'm the one that cooks) and not even get compensated for it. Oh, and I'm working Christmas Eve, too, so they're saying that's my "holiday," yet I'm working Christmas night, too, because it's my "weekend." I have 3 little kids at home that have missed enough holidays with their father when he was deployed. I'm sorry but this really ****** me off that I'm working each big holiday but only getting credit for working one of them. I would honestly not be that upset that I was working all of the holidays, if it was appropriately acknowledged as such.

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On our unit, we have two holiday groups. If you work one set of holidays one year, you are off of that set the next. If someone is "on" for a holiday, they are scheduled for the day before, day of, and day after...same for night shift. That way, whoever is "off"can have the holiday & surrounding days off for travel. It works really well on our unit.

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Specializes in ICU.

I like how Transplant RN's unit does holidays- wish we could implement that at my hospital. Our holiday policy is similar to other previous posters, and it seems like the night shift always gets screwed since our technical holiday is the eve of. Our holidays are grouped into Group 1 and 2, and they rotate each year. For example, my off holiday is Thanksgiving this year, which means I have Thanksgiving Eve off. But since Thanksgiving day isn't considered my holiday, I was scheduled to work, so technically I work on Thanksgiving.

Same thing for Christmas, which is my holiday to work. I definitely will be working Christmas Eve, not sure about Christmas day yet as the schedule is not out yet. It is possible I may work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The one thing our managers try to do is that if you work a holiday, you get the day before or day after off. But that doesnt always work our for nightshifters since your "day off prior to holiday" may fall on Dec 23 for example. Not good for travel or family. I would rather have the days lumped together. This "rule" also depends on the needs of the unit and the scheduling needs- it isn't a given and they don't always do it.

Oh well. I don't have kids yet so the holidays aren't a huge deal right now, but it is somewhat irritating that your "off holidays" aren't actually on the holiday lol

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Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

At my old place, I worked midnights. We had to work 1 eve and 1 day. So if you worked Christmas Eve, you would have New Year's Eve off. Then work New Year's Day and have Christmas Day off. Some people worked it out so they have both Christmas holidays off and worked both New Year's. As for the rest of the holidays a year, you were allowed to request them off. If it came to too many people wanting the same holiday off, it went by who worked last year. At my new place this year we work 8 hour shifts, 5 days a week so everyone works every other weekend. Christmas is my weekend to work and New Year's I'm off the whole weekend. Kinda stinks. I'm not sure how they do it when the holidays don't fall on a weekend.

Hope this makes sense lol.

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Specializes in ICU.

The night shift just typically gets screwed for the holidays because there are 2 seperate working days that fall on the same holiday.

Where I used to work, the actual time and a half holiday was the eve. You were not required to work the night of the actual holiday if you didn't work the eve, but it seemed as if you ended up on the schedule for that sometimes anyways and you feel like you never got a full holiday off. I do not feel it should be a requirement though. Just a rotation on the actual eve which is the time and a half pay.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

I really don't remember how exactly my unit does it, I gave up on holidays years ago as my husband and I are both nurses (but at two different hospitals who of course do holidays differently).

I think at one time the unit had us work 3 of 6 winter holidays (eves and days of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years). They used to assign us to groups and rotate our holidays year to year. I know this, no matter what they did, no more than 25 % of nurses thought they got a fair shake.

My family hasn't consistently celebrated any holiday on the actual day for years. We've had Christmas anywhere from Dec. 21st through 27th. We routinely celebrate birthdays or anniversaries sometime the same week they happen. By the way, that works really well for Valentines as it's virtually impossible to eat out without a reservation that night, but try going on Feb 12th and you're golden.

Especially to the previous poster who is military and has no local family. I seriously sympathize as I grew up out of the country often celebrating holidays that didn't even exist in that country (Thanksgiving is not big outside of North America). Make your own holiday!! Cook big on the day before Thanksgiving (or after, or whenever). The kids will seriously not mind if you have Christmas on Dec. 23rd, they may even think they are one up on their friends. I guess it's a big issue if they really believe in Santa. When we were Stateside, we always had to celebrate holidays on off days because we couldn't have Christmas in several different cities and had to have it on alternative days. Not having extended family around means you guys can do the holidays on your own terms.

I'm really not fussing, but simply offering a possible solution from someone who has dealt with those issues of being away from family at holidays and having to work on holidays.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

We signed up for our first and second choice for holidays. It's my first year here, but I got the impression that if you were off one, you work the other. To get the full 12 hours holiday pay you have to work both the eve and the day of the holiday. Just the breaks of night shift.

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Specializes in ICU, Cardiac.

We have three rotations and within that you can bunch or split the holidays.

I bunch mine so my holidays this year are Thanksgiving eve, Thanksgiving Day and Memorial Day night. Next year is Christmas eve, Christmas day and July 4th. The 3rd rotation is New years eve, New Years day and Labor Day night. So we only really lose one major holiday a year this way.

There are people who split them, so within those rotations they are working two different winter holidays, but that is the rotations they chose.

Thanksgiving Eve, Christmas Eve and New Years eve are the winter holidays, with the day afters (Thanksgiving day, Christmas Day and New Years Day nights) being the "hard to staff" days. Memoral Day night, Labor Day night and July 4th night are they other holidays. You have to work 3, with 2 being winter holidays.

I think it works since you know from year to year in advance what your next rotation is. Hope this makes sense to you!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, ICU.

My hospital had that same issue with night shift holidays when I first started. We all complained and then voted, and we voted to work the whole holiday (eve and day) then have the next holiday off. So this year I work Thanksgiving eve and day, off Christmas eve and day, work New Years eve and day. Next year will be opposite.

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Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.

If you are doing 12 hour shifts, my hospital starts you at 11p if it is your holiday off. For example:

I'm 'off' this Thanksgiving. So I am not working the evening going into Thanksgiving, but I will be coming to work at 7pm on Thanksgiving night. Technically the holiday is over at 11pm on the day of the holiday, so I will be getting 4 hours holiday pay. They do this for people who work 12s overnight.

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