Policies for Working during the Holidays

[tnbutterfly - Mary]

A reporter is looking for input from nurses regarding the following issues for working during the religious/observed holidays such as Christmas, Christmas Eve, Hanukkah, etc.

• What hours do you have to work during the holidays?
  
• What are the policies regarding who has to work?
  
• How do you feel about working on a holiday?
  
• What can you expect as a new nurse?
  
• Suggestions/tips for coping with working on the holidays.
  

If you choose to post a comment, please include your degree/certifications, specialty, place of employment (not name but type of facility), years of employment at current job.

Thanks for your input and Happy Holidays!!

Feel free to add any other discussion comments re. working on the holidays.

Edited to add a link to a form for you to submit your responses if you want to do so privately.

Working on the Holidays

[nowim clean]

We rotate the holidays. We work 12 hours and to me it is just another day, if anything the holidays messes my schedule up I am that person who likes to work my track with no beaks in it but due to holidays I have had to bust my track up even though I was willing to Christmas eve and Christmas day new years eve new years day was told no I had to rotate.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

• What hours do you have to work during the holidays? - Same as any other day 12 hours 5p-5a
  
• What are the policies regarding who has to work? - Clinical staff of course has to work, non clinical takes the days off and is forced to use PTO on Christmas eve, Day and new years eve. It is a rotating schedule of 6 holidays and you work every other, next year you switch. If you want to switch with others you obviously can.
  
• How do you feel about working on a holiday? I don't really care. Holidays are pointless to me so I appreciate the extra money
  
• What can you expect as a new nurse? As a new nurse I expected to do my share of holidays, and I have
  
• Suggestions/tips for coping with working on the holidays. Treat it like any other day and celebrate with your family when you can.
  

RN, BSN. Emergency Dept. Level 1 Trauma Center. Been here a few months, but the same as my other hospital was

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

• What hours do you have to work during the holidays? Same as any other day, my regular schedule
  
• What are the policies regarding who has to work? If the holiday falls on your regular day to work, you work. The policy to rotate holidays hasn't ever been enforced so I don't even know if it is a policy anymore.
  
• How do you feel about working on a holiday? It usually doesn't bother me, it's expected in a hospital/LTC. It does kind of stink though when every holiday falls on your day to work.
  
• What can you expect as a new nurse? Depends on the policy where you work. Some places the new nurse will get stuck with every holiday, but I expect most places are a little more fair about it
  
• Suggestions/tips for coping with working on the holidays. Expect to work with no management on staff as they all get the holiday off [this is usually a good thing!]. Enjoy the camaraderie of working with other staff that also stuck there that day. Be flexible about when your holiday celebration happens. My mother and I were both working nurses before her retirement, we very rarely celebrated holidays on the actual holiday
  

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I work OR, so we're a little different- no scheduled cases on holidays or weekends. The way it works is we are divided into 3 teams, with each team doing one summer and one winter holiday. The holidays rotate each year, so everyone works 1 Christmas in 3 years, 1 Thanksgiving in 3 years, and 1 New Years in 3 years. Each person is scheduled for work or call, rarely both.

We do have one specialty team that is their own entity, and for summer holidays, it's a ranking of 1-3, with the scheduler doing their best to meet everyone's first choice (usually not a problem as certain people do prefer certain holidays). For winter holidays, it's a sign up for your preferred holiday based on who worked Christmas the year before gets first choice, Thanksgiving second, New Years third, and those who didn't work a holiday (either because they weren't working then or because each year, 3 people get to skip a holiday) are stuck with what's left.

All staff are permitted to switch as they wish. Often, our Jewish nurses will happily trade their holiday and work Christmas. Others like the 1.5x pay and will work multiple holidays.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Thank you for all the input. I'll let you know where and when this story is posted.