Few people would choose to spend Christmas Day in a hospital, but healthcare professionals working on Dec. 25 say there is a sense of community, an intimacy, that the special day permits.
“We try to make it a good day for everyone, since everyone [patients and staff] would really rather be home,” said Briana Miller, a 2011 nursing alumna of Eastern Mennonite University. She has worked two of the three past Christmases at Sentara RMH Medical Center in Harrisonburg, Va.
On the days preceding Christmas, most patients get to go home, except for those in most need of care, said Austin Ardron, a 2014 nursing grad at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Va. The smaller numbers mean that nurses have more time for their patients.
“When you have five or six patients, it’s hard to just sit down and talk with them,” said Ardron. “But when you only have three or four, then you have time to do the little things like go and get them a cup of coffee and listen to their stories.”
After working the past three Christmases (the first two as a patient care technician), Ardron offered this year to work night shift on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, which tend to be the least-desired shifts of the year.
“I don’t have kids yet, so I don’t mind being here when those with young families would like to be home,” he explained.
Miller mentioned that the families of healthcare workers “have to be more flexible.” Miller goes into work at noon on Christmas this year, so she’ll be rushing through the morning gift-exchange with her family a little faster than she’d like.
Judy Hiett, an EMU alumna with 30 years of nursing experience, said, “You just get used to working your family life around it.” Obviously, she added in reference to Sentara RMH, “the hospital doesn’t close just because holidays are here.”
Sentara RMH social worker Stephanie Zucconi ’05 opted to work on the evening of Dec. 25 this year in support of her family situation: she has a 2-year-old daughter and another on the way and is “saving her vacation for maternity leave.” Like Miller, by going into work later on Christmas Day, she gets to enjoy the festivities of the morning with her husband and daughter.
“I feel blessed,” Zucconi said. “Our department does really well with helping us out – we all come together and fill in where needed in order to keep things running smoothly.”
Miller and Ardron both grew up with fathers who were nurses, so adjusting the timing of the holiday celebrations feels normal. “I feel like Christmas is more of a mobile holiday anyway,” said Ardron, who names his favorite holiday as Thanksgiving because “it is more about sitting down with family and spending time together.” He will be celebrating Christmas on the 26th this year because his brother Adrian Ardron (also a 2014 EMU nursing grad) and his father will be working Christmas Day at UVA as well.
Hiett celebrated Christmas with immediate family on the 24th, with plans to gather with extended family on the 27th. For her, Christmas is about celebrating Jesus’ birth, the love of family, and the love of giving. “Just because you work on Christmas, doesn’t mean you change the traditions,” she said.