Holiday Scheduling - how to make it fair

[DisneyNurseGal]

So, at work, I am on a committee to decide how we are going to [fairly] schedule for the holiday season. My unit considers six holidays:

1) Thanksgiving

2) Friday after Thanksgiving

3) Christmas Eve

4) Christmas Day

5) New Years Eve

6) New Years Day

It is important to know, that last year, my unit had the nurses, by seniority, select two holidays (out of the six) that they wanted to work with a third choice as a backup. So a nurse could work Thanksgiving, and the day after and have Christmas and New Years completely off.

Some people want to select by seniority again, others want to go by what you worked last year, and this year you must work THAT holiday and take other days off. This second idea does not work perfectly because more than 50% of our unit were not here last year (so how to we schedule them). Seniority also doesn't work because theoretically you could end up with Christmas Day being staffed by new nurses.

My question is this, how does your workplace handle the holidays so that it is fair AND patient safety isn't compromised. We (as a committee) understand that no solution is going to make everyone happy - we just need some ideas!

Thanks

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

We are divided into three teams. Each team is assigned weekends, one winter holiday, and one summer holiday. The schedule is passed out in September or early October for the following year. Weekends are usually every third, but slight adjustments are made around the holidays so that the team responsible for the holiday are also on the closest weekend. The holidays are rotated, so a team is only assigned to every third Christmas or other holidays. Switching is allowed, but the following year's schedule isn't affected. On the occasions where we've needed someone to switch their team, every effort is made not to have them work the same holiday two years in a row.

[Emaloney13]

I feel my floor makes holidays fair but very difficult if you need to travel. At the beginning of the year our holidays are posted for the upcoming year and the following year which is nice because you know far in advance. We do every other holiday and then the following year you work the opposite. We consider Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years as our 6 holidays. However if you work Christmas you have off Christmas Eve, or if you work thanksgiving you work Black Friday so if you are looking to travel around the holidays it is very difficult

[rnforforty]

I used to love working the holidays. But back the then was no time and a half for holidays. The big advantage for me was doing it in exchange for 3 or 4 days off after so I could travel home, since the were not local. I worked that way for 5 - 6 years before going to every other holiday. Now, that time and a half is great incentive.

[Nenja]

One place I worked we did team A and B and we worked whatever holidays were for that team...next year it switched. We were typically able to swap around and even sometimes split the shift in half to make it work for whatever we had going on with our families. That was a really small unit.

Where I am now, we get the list of holidays and we rank them how we'd prefer to work. I *think* if there are too many on/off a day seniority gets priority, but I don't think it happens too much. If census is low day of the holiday, most senior is called off. I choose to work all of a major holiday and request to have all of the other off (talking Thanksgiving and Christmas) because my family isn't local so I travel home for one...the next year I switch it the other way around because I think it's most fair to my coworkers. We can still swap between each other as plans change...I don't think we have too many issues with doing it this way.

[rnbabyzoo]

The hospital I work at designates 7 holidays per yr , we work every third holiday. Which includes day before day of and day after as the holiday schedule. The schedule is posted 1 yr in advance. If interested we can switch holidays in writing at least 1 month in advance with our coworkers. Since there are 7 holidays per year our schedule changes each year.

[MMARN, BSN, RN]

In my current unit, we work what we didn't the year before. So, I had Thanksgiving off last year and will be working it this year. One year I really wanted Christmas Day off but had it off the year before, so because we were staffed fairly well and there were a couple of newbies, my manager let me have Christmas off. This system has worked rather well, and most of us are happy (of course, not everyone will be happy but what can you do?)

[firstinfamily, RN]

My facility follows about the same as RNsRWe where a "holiday package" is assigned to each nurse. There are 3 packages, A, B, C. The holidays are split up among these packages and nurses assigned accordingly. The packages are rotated yearly, so no one is working the same holidays every year. If a nurse wants to work a certain holiday and it is not in her package a trade with another nurse has to be approved. It is not done by seniority, nor by part vs full time. I think this is a fair way of dividing up the holidays and usually there is not much grumbling among staff.