By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
I recently had a discussion with a group of nurse managers about their dilemmas with holiday scheduling. This manager’s story is a good illustration of what many leaders find themselves confronting over the next two weeks:
I don’t know what has changed, but staff are now much more demanding about their holiday scheduling needs. Our facility has clear guidelines – you are guaranteed one holiday with up to three days of PTO that can be used in addition to your days off (Thanksgiving, Christmas, OR New Year’s). Honestly, this was never a problem until recently. Nurses today want what they want; some believe they should be entitled to all three. I have made it clear that if nurses want to work all three holidays and put it in writing, I will schedule them to work, but that no longer gets many volunteers despite good economic incentives. So now some of my staff are threatening to call in sick. We have a pretty liberal sick leave policy, so my hands are somewhat tied. The challenge is that my volumes are staying very high, and I can’t rely now on a lower census over the holidays. Calling in sick means patients will not get the care they need, as getting replacement staff is almost impossible. Everything today seems to be focused on the individual’s needs with little concern about the team or the patients.
We talked about setting expectations. Several nurse leaders told me that they had made it clear to staff that they were expected to work on their scheduled holiday and that the use of leave on an unscheduled holiday would be reviewed and discussed. We also talked about using peer pressure – one leader told me that her charge nurses were setting up holiday meals at work and making it clear that everyone on the schedule would be expected to be there. Another told me that she had initiated a discussion during a huddle with staff about what happened during Thanksgiving when the unit had several call-ins and the impact that staff felt it had on care. Some staff seemed oblivious to the effect of very short staffing on their team members.
All of us in nursing have worked holidays, often giving up opportunities to spend time with families and friends. That is one of the hard things about this profession – the work, especially in acute care, is 24/7. My advice is to keep the lines of communication open and the discussion going, set expectations, encourage camaraderie, and, when possible, come in during one of the holidays to bring food and thank those working.
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