How does working major holidays go at your hospital?

MIA-RN · Oct 27, 2008

We are like others here in that we are divided into two groups, and the holidays are divided up fairly. It is pretty much every other holiday and if its Thanksgiving you also work the day after, if you're on Christmas you work Eve as well, and NY is the eve and day. This year I am working Thanksgiving and New Years and I don't mind. The premium pay makes it worthwhile...I can finance Christmas on my Thanksgiving wages.

The first year I was a nurse I worked somewhere else and the holidays were done some weird, unfair way that had to do with seniority, so I ended up working Labor day, Thanksgiving, the day after, Christmas Eve, Christmas., and New Year's. Yuck.

*ac* · Oct 27, 2008

Holidays are scheduled in a fair way on my unit (unlike most of the scheduling). We work every other holiday. Since there's 7 per year, this means everyone works every other Christmas, etc. For Christmas and New Year's, if you're on for the holiday, you're also on for the day before. For Thanskgiving, it depends wether you're on that weekend or not (we work every third weekend). If you're on the weekend after Thanksgiving, you can have Friday off.

Also, we work 8's on the holidays. Rotators rotate from days to evenings every holiday we work.

We are allowed to trade holidays any way we want as long as everyone agrees and the staffing is adequate.

The other thing is that we slow down a lot on holidays so there is always a high chance of getting cancelled, which is not so great because you haven't made plans, and then you're losing all that extra money.

But compared to alot of other unfair stuff that goes on, I have no complaints about holidays.

Pudnluv, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2008

We have 3 winter holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years and 3 summer holidays Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day. We have to work one of each set. Summer holidays are not a problem and usually no one cares if they work them or not. In the winter, there is a sign up sheet and you sign up for the holiday you want. If you work X-mas, you usually get either the day before or day after off, same with New Years. I work nights and we go in the day before for the next day (ie, tonight is Monday, but I'll actually be working for Tuesday. So working holidays is not a problem cause I still have the day of the holiday off and I usually take the night off after. It works well on my unit cause we pretty much keep track of who worked when so no one gets stuck having to work the same holidays each year. Other units in the hospital might do it different, but this has been working real well for us for years.

RNKPCE · Oct 28, 2008

We rate Thanksgiving, Xmas eve, Xmas, New years eve and New years day on a 1-5 scale, 1 being first choice. They try to give everyone their first two choices off. If there is a problem seniority rules. However we have such a mix of people with kids, people who want to party, people with grown kids that are willing to turn the hosting to their kids that it pretty much works itself out. The other holidays, President's day, 4th of July, Labor day etc. people are fighting to get onto the schedule. The double pay outweighs missing the holiday activities on those days.

Straydandelion · Oct 28, 2008

I have never worked at a place that had a "regular" holiday schedule, it was all at the whim of the NM so sometimes would get off at least one, other times not and usually didn't know until the schedule was out except in UM where all holidays were off.

koala_bear · Oct 28, 2008

we have 3 winter and 3 summer holidays; we all get to work one of each. its assigned and we rotate. i work nights so we do the night before and the night of. oh and we also have "hard to staff days" like halloween, black friday, jan 2, dec. 26, etc., and those are assigned along with the holidays

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2008

Schedule preference book. Rate Thanksgiving, Xmas eve/day, and New Years day/eve from 1-5. 1 being the one you want off the most. And believe it or not, not everyone asks for Christmas. Then the assistant nurse manager that does the schedule tries to meet our wishes. Usually work 2 or 3 of them. Otherwise we work on a 2 week rotating schedule and and if any other holiday falls on a work day it falls on a work day. So one year you might work what seems like them all. If we want if off we have to request it off in advance.

Rj

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2008

Every other holiday - but since I don't celebrate most of 'em (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas) I always volunteer to cover someone else. I figure it's win-win: they can stay home with family and I get paid a fat paycheck :)

Just as long as I have 4th of July and New Year's off

MB37 · Oct 28, 2008

Ours sounds good, since at least we get some say in what happens. We have to work 2 winter and 2 summer holiday shifts - for winter, its TG day, Xmas eve and day, and New Year's eve and day. At least on some units, if you want to go out of town for a holiday (and then have the 6 days off around Xmas) then you have to work the other three for that season to make up for it. It seems fair to me - we all knew it was a job requirement for hospital nursing, and I like it not being at the whim of my manager, or assigned to me based on some arbitrary group. This year I'm working both New Year's shifts, that's fine with me!

Iam46yearsold · Oct 28, 2008

I work ER, I only work one of those three holidays. Never more. And I choose which one to work.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Oct 29, 2008

We can work one of two options and within those two options are subgroups A & B. If you're in option 1, you work group A one year and group B the next. Ditto option 2. Option 1 is A) Th/NYE/NYD and B) CE/CD. Option 2 is A)Th/CE/NYE and B) CD/NYD. I think it is more complicated than it has to be. I work the first option, so I get Christmas completely off one year and Thanksgiving/New Years completely off the next. Of course, we can always trade off holidays if we find someone to trade with.

maire, ASN, RN · Oct 29, 2008

We rate Thanksgiving, Xmas eve, Xmas, New years eve and New years day on a 1-5 scale, 1 being first choice. They try to give everyone their first two choices off. If there is a problem seniority rules. However we have such a mix of people with kids, people who want to party, people with grown kids that are willing to turn the hosting to their kids that it pretty much works itself out. The other holidays, President's day, 4th of July, Labor day etc. people are fighting to get onto the schedule. The double pay outweighs missing the holiday activities on those days.

Ditto with my unit.