How does working major holidays go at your hospital?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Pediatric Psychiatry, Home Health VNA.

Do you have to work Thanksgiving and New Years to get Christmas off, and if so do you usually get scheduled for Christmas Eve too?

If you work Christmas, do they usually schedule you Christmas Eve and the day after too?

Just wondering how it works in different places.

i work in a dialysis unit, where we r closed every sun. so around the holidays, for example, we r closed on thanksgiving, xmas, and new years day, we work those sundays right b4 that holiday and simply move the pt's 2 diff. days. seems 2 work 4 the pt's and us to have the holiday off.

Specializes in tele, oncology.

For some reason, I can't come up with a concise way to explain ours.

We have six holidays each in winter and summer, for twelve total for the year. That in turn is broken down into a three year rotating holiday calendar...if you are on holiday schedule A, you work Memorial Day and Fourth of July, then Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Then next year, you'll have Labor Day and whatever, then Thanksgiving and New Years Day. Etc.

It's a fair system, since everyone takes their turns, and you know literally years in advance what holidays you're going to work and can make arrangements accordingly.

Specializes in mother/baby.

We are split into "holiday teams", and each of three teams works one major (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day) and one minor (Memorial, July 4th, Labor Day) holiday a year. The teams rotate each year. We are also individually required to work either the day before or the day after 2 major holidays a year. Our holidays are hard scheduled by our manager, but we self schedule using Staffing Angel for the days before/after. Also, we can swap holidays if you can find someone up for trading.

Specializes in Neuro, Cardiology, ICU, Med/Surg.

I believe it varies from unit to unit at my hospital. But in my unit, we are split into two "teams"... one either works Thanksgiving and New Year's (New Year's Eve and Day) or Christmas Eve and Xmas Day. This is my first year on the unit and I am working Xmas Eve and Day. On the holidays everyone works 8-hour shifts (no 12's). I'm working the 11p-7a shift on Xmas Eve and Day (my second choice, the first being the 7a-3p). This way, I can at least attend the Xmas Eve evening service at my church with my wife and salvage some of the holiday.

On the one hand, it's a drag to have to work both the Eve and the Day for either Xmas or New Year's... on the other hand, at least every other year, you don't have to worry about that particular holiday. Especially nice for me this year since my birthday is New Year's Eve.

Specializes in LTC/SNF, Psychiatric, Pharmaceutical.
Do you have to work Thanksgiving and New Years to get Christmas off, and if so do you usually get scheduled for Christmas Eve too?

If you work Christmas, do they usually schedule you Christmas Eve and the day after too?

Just wondering how it works in different places.

Whether I got holidays off in LTC/SNF, no matter what facility I worked in, depended entirely on if those holidays fell with in my 4-on 2-off schedule. There were no special holidays off for floor staff, and during at least 3 years, I worked every holiday- Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years' Eve, and New Years' day.

The administration of course got to go home and drink alcoholic egg nog every holiday while we were stuck with all the holiday madness.

Specializes in SICU, MICU, CICU, NeuroICU.

We work the eve and the day. In my unit we only have to work one holiday, but on other floors they have to work two holidays.

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

there are 7 holidays as my hospital: ny day, mlk day, memorial day, july 4, labor day, thanksgiving and christmas. we're split into two teams, and each team works every other holiday. if you work the holiday, you also work either the day before or the day after. so you know years in advance and can plan ahead accordingly. i'm working christmas eve and christmas day this year. my husband, also a nurse, always volunteers to work the holidays i'm working, so no one gives him a hard time about the ones he refuses to work (the ones i have off.) since he volunteers to work every other christmas, tg and ny, he's already doing more holidays than most of the staff he works with!

I feel ripped off after reading your posts. In the hospital where I work there is no rules for working holidays except that if you work christmas you get new year's off and vice versa. Unfortunately, working holidays in my hospital depends on your rotation. In my rotation I work almost every holiday every year! ( For the last 6 years, and as an LPN there is not a whole lot of choice of rotations either) They get sneaky about it too, for example I might work the entire holiday weekend but not the stat therefore not getting any stat pay and losing out on a holiday.

i think we're required to work one major holiday per year and get the others off. however, everyone wants to work on the holidays because of the extra pay and so i don't have to work any this year

Specializes in NICU.

We get Christmas off every other year, but if you work days that pretty much means you work both Thanksgiving and New Years. Noc workers have more options to choose from, but at this point I'd still rather work days :D.

I'm off most of the week before Christmas, but I'll be working from the 26-28. And I will be working Thanksgiving and New Years Eve day and New Years, too.

I guess I knew this would happen when I decided to work in a hospital...:rolleyes:.

The good thing is I like my fellow nurses, but I'd still rather be at home :).

Specializes in NICU Level III.

We work either the eve or the day of EVERY holiday..therefore you can't EVER go anywhere far because you have to be there for the holiday....which I think is stupid.

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