{"id":22745,"date":"2014-12-24T22:44:33","date_gmt":"2014-12-25T03:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=22745"},"modified":"2015-01-13T11:54:22","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T16:54:22","slug":"for-these-healthcare-alumni-christmas-day-means-a-shift-or-two-serving-the-hospital-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/for-these-healthcare-alumni-christmas-day-means-a-shift-or-two-serving-the-hospital-community\/","title":{"rendered":"For these healthcare alumni, Christmas Day means a shift (or two) serving the hospital community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few people would choose<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to make it a good day for everyone, since everyone [patients and staff] would really rather be home,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"Austin3\"
Austin Ardron, a 2014 nursing grad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have five or six patients, it\u2019s hard to just sit down and talk with them,\u201d said Ardron. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have kids yet, so I don\u2019t mind being here when those with young families would like to be home,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Miller mentioned that the families of healthcare workers \u201chave to be more flexible.\u201d Miller goes into work at noon on Christmas this year, so she\u2019ll be rushing through the morning gift-exchange with her family a little faster than she\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

Judy Hiett, an EMU alumna with 30 years of nursing experience, said, \u201cYou just get used to working your family life around it.\u201d Obviously, she added in reference to Sentara RMH, \u201cthe hospital doesn\u2019t close just because holidays are here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie_\"
Stephanie Zucconi, a 2005 social work grad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u201csaving her vacation for maternity leave.\u201d Like Miller, by going into work later on Christmas Day, she gets to enjoy the festivities of the morning with her husband and daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel blessed,\u201d Zucconi said. \u201cOur department does really well with helping us out \u2013 we all come together and fill in where needed in order to keep things running smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller and Ardron both grew up with fathers who were nurses, so adjusting the timing of the holiday celebrations feels normal. \u201cI feel like Christmas is more of a mobile holiday anyway,\u201d said Ardron, who names his favorite holiday as Thanksgiving because \u201cit is more about sitting down with family and spending time together.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 birth, the love of family, and the love of giving. \u201cJust because you work on Christmas, doesn\u2019t mean you change the traditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 ... read more about For these healthcare alumni, Christmas Day means a shift (or two) serving the hospital community<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":22749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4515,266,359,5600,5730],"tags":[16142,10891],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-22745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-applied-social-sciences","category-nursing","category-undergraduate-programs","tag-austin-ardron","tag-rmh"],"yoast_head":"\nFor these healthcare alumni, Christmas Day means a shift (or two) serving the hospital community - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/for-these-healthcare-alumni-christmas-day-means-a-shift-or-two-serving-the-hospital-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For these healthcare alumni, Christmas Day means a shift (or two) serving the hospital community - 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