Happy Holidays!
Well here we are, at the start of another holiday season. The crisp air, the fresh snow…the holiday work schedule…….

For the third year in a row, I will be working Thanksgiving.  This is my 3rd nursing position in as many years, and as luck would have it, I’ve been scheduled for Thanksgiving each year. I am not so upset by this, as the holiday pay will go a long way towards financing the next big upcoming holiday—Christmas.

This year I do not have to work Christmas, and I AM glad of that. My first year as a nurse, I was put on the schedule for 7a – 7p Christmas day. There was an issue of seniority, and being the newbie I was given no real choice. I did, however, manage to barter down to 7a –330p, and then magically got flexed for the first 4 hours of my shift. It wasn’t all bad, but still…having worked Thanksgiving that year, and then knowing I would be required to work New Year’s as well…I did find it a little unfair.

How does the holiday schedule work for you? I am interested in hearing the different ways that hospitals manage their nursing schedule throughout the holidays. Where I work now goes by the every-other holiday rule, which I suspect is the way many places plan for holiday staffing. What about your place of employment? Are there any other creative ways to arrange the holiday schedule?

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Deanna, RN.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.