Being an employee in the healthcare field can be very demanding. But one of the biggest struggles are working the holidays such as Thanksgiving day, Christmas day, Christmas eve, New Years Eve and New Years Day when you just want to be with your family. But working in healthcare, there isn't much choice about working holidays or even what holidays you have to work. Your holiday is chosen for you, unless you find someone else to work for you or swap.
You can request off, but it has to be 2-4 weeks ahead of time and there is still a slight chance it will get approved. There are ups and downs about working in healthcare during the holidays.

The Ups

1. You're making money- even though its not just about the money, it's about taking care of strangers who need you and eventually become family. You grow attached to them, and when you hear they are discharging, everything changes. I wish I could be home celebrating holidays with my family, but being at work taking care of patient and my work family make it all worth while.

2. If your work family is at great as mine, we have our own Thanksgiving pot luck, everyone brought either food, drinks, plates, cups and even dessert.

3. You get to be there for the patients who don't have local family, show them you care, because if they have been there for a while, they become family, and if family lives far away or just refuses to come see them, you become their family. They know you, they trust in you, and some of the older patients "adopt" you as their grandchild.

The Downs

1. Not being home to be with your own family can be a drag, especially if you have kids who are having their first Christmas and you want to be able to see them open their gifts. Even though your family understands you have to work, you still feel down for not being there to spend time with them. Not being able to see your kid enjoy their first Thanksgiving meal, their first Christmas morning when they wake up and see all the gifts for them under the tree.

2. Some patients tend to be rude because they wanted to go home the day before the holiday, but the doctor said they wanted to keep you for another day. Then the patient gets upset, starts becoming demanding because they didn't get to go home

3. Usually the census is down, and/or units are shut down, forcing employees to be put on call. Which some would said its nice, but you can't go very far. If your family happens to live down the road like mine, you can go and enjoy some time with them and when work calls you can say your goodbyes and go home and change clothes and head to work, but if you go to another city to see family and you get called in, its going to take you a while to get to work even if you take a change of work clothes with you.

All in all, healthcare is a great field to work in if you don't mind being there are patients/residents who don't have any family near. Its the greatest reward ever to see that smile on their face that you came to work on a holiday to help them and be with them.