Management Monday October 27th 2025
Posted 14 days ago by Kenneth Worley
Greetings
Well, it is Halloween week, what kind of spooky surprises will await you this week? Every week there seems to be spooky surprises awaiting us and it doesn’t even have to be Halloween season does it. Through it all we as perioperative professionals continue to move forward to meet the issues and problems head on. We are about to reach what I call the holiday season with more holidays over the next couple of months. How do you juggle the staffing schedule to allow everyone to the time they need during the holiday season? Do you have a self-scheduling system, a holiday sign up system, or do you assign a schedule?
Quote
Happy Halloween
Kenny
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Great questions, Kenny!
In my previous role, we rotated holidays by dividing them into fall/winter and spring/summer groups. This ensured an even balance so that each person typically covered two holidays per year — one in the spring/summer and one in the fall/winter. Looking forward to more dialogue. Have a great week!
Becca Vortman
Great post, Kenny! I absolutely love this time of year — who else here still dresses up and tries to spook the neighborhood kids?
On a more serious note, the holiday season can definitely make scheduling a challenge with everyone trying to balance family time and work responsibilities. I feel very fortunate to work in an ASC now, where holidays are no longer a concern. But when I worked in the hospital setting, we too used a holiday rotation calendar to ensure fairness across the team. It really helped distribute the workload more evenly and kept morale strong during a time that can already be stressful.
Hi Kenny! Great questions! We have a unique situation at our campus that affords us the opportunity to alternate our holidays (major vs minor). If we are scheduled to work or be on call for a major holiday (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day) this year, next year we will be working/on call for a minor holiday (Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day). If an employee is scheduled for a holiday that they do not want to work, it becomes their responsibility to get coverage for the day. Because we are a relatively "new" facility (opened in August 2024), we are still overstaffed most days for the case load we currently have. We also have the option to help out at the one of the other campuses that are affiliated with us should we want to get full hours (in the event we don't have cases), although there are some instances where it's either not feasible to travel that distance or they don't have any needs we can fill. (I work at a pediatric hospital.)
Caryn, that is wonderful that you guys can work together and share the workload! Definitely sounds like an excellent and fair system! :)
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