B: As of 2019, roughly 40+ docs requesting as either a hard request or vacation/EL for 3 out of the 4 Minor Holidays. Given 6-8 docs cannot work by default as they are post overnights, only 30-40 docs are available to work. With 30 clinical shifts in SLN, FRE and SLH, 4 AACC core shifts and potentially more rotating ones, there are at least 34 clinical shifts that need to be covered. Complicating this further is even if people are “available” to work during these impacted times there is no guarantee that they can easily be scheduled for these shifts based on preferences (consecutive shifts willing to work, timing/location requests, length of shift request) and more importantly their schedule leading up to the impacted dates. Compromises to the schedule had to be made to accommodate these requests in 2019. These included asking docs to do tight turnarounds or work 2 doubles back to back. On deeper dive, some people have been off 3 out of the 4 Minor Holidays and some have not requested any at all.
A: A clear plan needs to be in place that allows more equitable distribution of these Minor Holiday blocks, still allows the freedom to potentially take 1,2,3, or all 4 Minor Holidays and most importantly ensures that the department will be adequately staffed.
R: Create a ranking system 1-4 (1 = highest priority, 4 = lowest priority) and prioritize each Minor Holiday (3-4 day block):
(1) President’s Day S/Su/M
(2) Memorial Day S/Su/M
(3) July 4th (If falls on a M, S/Su/M. If T, Sa/Su/M/T. If W Tu/W/Th. If Th, Th/F/S/Su. If F, S, or Su, F/S/Su)
(4) Labor Day S/Su/M.
ONLY rank the Minor Holidays that you actually want off AND indicate how much of the 3-4 day block you would like off.
If requesting all 3 to 4 days off of a Minor Holiday, then you will need to request as VAC.
Total number of days requested are tallied (this is important because tiebreakers within Priority Ranking will be decided by who has the least number of total requests):
If you request each specific Minor Holiday off but none of the surrounding days then the request tally = 4, one for each day.
If you request every Minor Holiday with the associated surrounding days then your request tally would = 12, 4 Minor Holidays each with 3-day block.
EXAMPLE:
If Steve Le only wants July 4th off then he ranks July 4th as a “1” and leaves the other Minor Holidays blank. It could either be just one day if that’s all he wants or up to a 3-4 day block.
Each day requested counts as one point. So if Steve wants July 4th and the corresponding weekend he ranks it as “1” and the tally is 3 points (assuming Fri/Sat/Sun).
Steve Le: July 4th = Rank 1, Point Tally = 3
If Eli wants every Minor Holiday off and the corresponding block then the tally will be 12 points (4 Minor Holidays x 3 day blocks). Let’s say Eli has also ranked July 4th as a “1” and President’s Day as a “2”.
Eli Gilleran: July 4th = Rank 1, President’s Day = Rank 2 (other Minor Holiday ranks don’t matter for this example), Point Tally = 12
Let’s also say Marc Andrews wants all 4 Minor Holidays off but only actually cares about the individual day, not the block of days. He also ranks July 4th as a “1” and President’s Day as a “2”.
Marc Andrews: July 4th = Rank 1, President’s Day = Rank 2 (other Minor Holidays don’t matter for this example), Point Tally = 4
Let’s say Maggie only wants July 4th and President’s Day, doesn’t care about the block or any other holidays and she ranks July 4th as a “1” and President’s Day as a “2”.
Maggie: July 4th = Rank 2, President’s Day = Rank 1, Points Tally = 2