Scheduling expectations

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Do you have expectations when you make scheduling requests? Do you have co-workers who constantly request every holiday off? Or do your co-workers request fairly?

I ask this because I work in a chronic hemodialysis unit, we never work Sundays only Thanksgiving week, Christmas and New year weeks if they fall on a week day. We never dialyse on Thanksgiving, Christmas or new year so no staff ever work these days, how ever we do work the other holidays.

Recently we realised that one of our co-workers requested either the week before the holiday week as her vacation or the week of the holiday week.

So this meant that this staff member always got the friday and the weekend off before her vacation and the monday off following her vacation, because that is what everybody requests and normally gets! So when the RNs realised that they were working a lot more holidays they were up in arms because this meant she got to work no holidays or the weekends before.

When she was challenged and asked to work labor day which was the monday after her vacation she was annoyed and told everybody that she shouldn't be expected to work the monday after her vacation because nobody else ever did after their vacations.

Do you think it was unfair to expect her to work? By the way she handed in her notice because she has to work labor day and dialysis RN's can get a job at a drop of a hat, it is just the way it is in the dialysis community!

How are the holidays divided in your work place? Is is done fairly

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Our scheduling is fair because it has to be. I'm a Canadian RN, and we are in a union. However, we are short staffed and one of the RNs refuses to pick up shifts, so the rest of us are asked all the time. I'm getting annoyed and starting to draw boundaries with respect to how many shifts I will pick up. The chronic shortage is not my concern.

[tyloo]

A couple places I worked at stated no vacation requests from Mid December through first week of January. It works out nice. Another hospital I worked out had vacation book and it was planned almost a year in advance where by seniority weeks were signed up for.

Dialysis center is pretty small and I don't remember how the other holidays worked in the past. Really there was only four full time nurses and a few part time so chances are we were working on those days.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I'm an APN in a large nephrology practice - there are four of us that share call/work on the holidays. We have a rotation and that's it. Very fair and no one takes advantage of it.

[Crux1024]

I have to go with everyone else. Perhaps your unit should start a holiday rotation. Its not fair for everyone else. Our holidays are assigned at the beginning of the year and if we want a vacation its our responsibility to work around this. Your coworker was obviously playing the system and was able to do for for long enough that she got used to it. Maybe youre better off with her leaving.

[mazy]

The facility where I work now has a no vacation policy from mid December through January. Other facilities I've worked in have a policy that you will only get holiday/vacation pay if you work your scheduled day before and after the holiday. That prevents people from taking those long weekends. Also, we do holiday rotations.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

We have scheduling guidelines that we have to abide by. Holidays go by seniority. If we take vacation the week of a summer holiday or Thanksgiving, then that is our first choice off.

[PediNurse3]

The unit that I work in for the next two weeks has a scheduling committe that keeps track of holidays worked. Requirements are one summer holiday (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day), and alternating winter holidays, for example, Thanksgiving one year, Christmas the next, etc.