Gosh, I’m so glad to see you.

I hope your Christmas was incredible! I hope you sat by a warm fire, snuggled up next to your love, with some delicious scented candles filling the air, and maybe some mood lighting making an awesome day even more awesome. Were your favorite family members near, with a delicious beverage of choice, and enough love there to fill up the entirety of the room, so much that it seeps through the cracks in the window panes?

Unfortunately… I KNOW…some of you didn’t.

Some of you were missing someone you love by your side.

Maybe they were caring for the sick in the hospital. Or your loved one has passed away and is no longer with you. Maybe your loved one is in the military and currently deployed. Maybe they WERE the sick in the hospital.

I am grateful that I can’t fully relate to ALL of these situations, but just hear me…I care. And I’m sorry. And if you’re like my husband who doesn’t like me to feel sympathy, but instead wants me to be mad with him, I will be mad with you, too. It feels unfair, unjust, wrong.

I hope, and pray, that next year is different for you and your family.

I’ve had years like that, too. Of course, I’ve talked about how being married to a doctor has both perks and downsides. Some obvious, some not. You can revisit that conversation HERE. But there are definite sacrifices involved in having a medical spouse that impacts the whole family, especially during those training years of medical school, residency, and fellowship. Some of those sacrifices involve forfeiting time with your family on special days like Christmas.

So today, I’m answering two important questions about doctors working on Christmas:

1. Is there a “glass half full” side to doctors working the Christmas holidays? (SPOILER ALERT: YES!)
2. How much can you expect to work the Christmas holidays as a medical trainee and beyond?

4 Benefits to Doctors Working on Christmas

The bottom line is that medical training can be a big, fat barrier to that cozy Christmas cuddle I talked about earlier. In fact, it can sometimes make the holidays a logistical nightmare. However…I would argue that it also changes you, and maybe even for the better. Here’s why:

1. It makes the reason for the season more evident.

As Christians, my family believes that the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the incredible gift we’ve been given through Him. Christmas is a reason to give to others, as we have been generously given to. And what better way to give than by being present for the patients who are sick enough to be stuck in a hospital on Christmas Day?

I know that for my husband when he is working on Christmas, he has an extra spring in his step walking through those halls. He is ready to not only bring healing but Christmas joy for those willing to receive it. And even though I miss him while I’m doing whatever it is we planned with the kids, I am in full support, knowing that other people, who need it the most, are being helped, healed, and supported by him.

2. You stop taking you spouse’s presence for granted.

You know a good way to appreciate each other’s presence on the holidays? Take it away for a few years.

I know how fortunate I am every time I have him by my side for ANYTHING special for me or our family. When I don’t EXPECT him to be around, I sure am glad when he is.

As I mentioned, he worked on Christmas several medical school and residency years. Another contributing factor is that my husband and I had a long-distance relationship for years before we were married, and often spent the holidays with our respective families before marriage. So now, I am extremely grateful to have him any time that I can get him. I truly do not take our time together for granted, which is a unique gift.

3. You learn to be flexible.

You end up having to learn how to (relatively) happily work around the demands of the job.

Flashback to two years ago. My husband was on call on Christmas. Fortunately, our oldest was still young enough that we literally just told her Christmas was on December 26th. We woke up that day and pretended it was Christmas. We did the whole thing. It was perfect and we barely even noticed it wasn’t actual Christmas Day.

But you know who DID notice? All of those people my husband rounded on and answered phone calls for on Christmas Day. Flexibility in a medical family is a MUST.

4. If you work on Christmas, you probably will get other holidays off, which is exciting.

If it’s your year to work Christmas, then chances are, you’ll be home free for many of the other holidays of the year. So get excited. You will likely get to make some BIG V-Day plans to make up for the lack of Christmas travels. You will find extra joy in some of those other special days your spouse is around for.

These lessons, in my opinion, are God’s way of blessing us and teaching us in situations that seem difficult. Whenever trials are present, if we look for those blessings, rather than dwelling on what we are missing out on, then we allow ourselves to be changed for the better. There are always lessons to be learned through trials.

Yes, I could talk about that for-ev-er. But alas, that will have to be another day.

Now, let’s get to that other conversation, shall we?!

The Holidays Throughout the Training Years

Have you ever wondered what the schedules are like for medical trainees and doctors over the holidays?! If you decide to become a doctor, will you EVER see your family on Christmas? Maybe you know someone that is just starting in medical school and wondering what this joyous time of year is going to look like going forward?

I’m going to do my best to answer these questions. I’ll tell you the factors involved in working the holidays and specifically, how much my husband has had to work them, during training, and beyond.

This is OUR experience, but it may vary for you depending on the specific medical school, residency, fellowship, or attending position that you have or are pursuing.

Oh, and just for reference, my husband is an Orthopedic Surgeon and has a private practice job in a group with 10-15 other surgeons. See what his training was like HERE.

Regarding the Christmas holidays, this is how things went down for him.

Holidays in Medical School

You are likely to have holidays off for the first two years of medical school. The second half of medical school is less reliable.

The first two years of medical school traditionally consist of a classroom lecture. This is lovely because you actually do get a holiday break over Christmas and New Years’. No one wants to be teaching over the holidays, lucky for everyone! You are also given other major holidays off. Whoo-hoo! (Though there is often a lot of studying to do which puts a slight damper on things!)

The last two years of medical school begin a long, long journey into the holiday unknown. During these last two years, you learn how to be a physician by working hands-on with a team in the actual hospital (i.e. during clerkships and elective rotations). During this time, you participate as a contributing member to the team on which you are assigned.

If, as the fabulous med student you are, you are going to attempt to match in a competitive specialty for residency, then you better believe you are fully committed to that team, (after all, they do write reviews about you). This means that if your team is in the hospital, you usually are, too. You want to be the first there and last to leave. My husband would show up every day, often rounding before the team arrived. He was at home only if the team demanded he takes time off. If he was on a rotation that wasn’t as relevant to his specialty, then he was able to convince himself to take it slightly easier. So what does all of this have to do with the holidays? Well, if they work the holiday, and you want to be awesome, YOU work the holiday, too.

Our situation: My husband was off for the first two years of medical school. He worked Christmas during his last two years of Medical School.

Holidays During Residency

I think the best way to describe holidays during Residency is just to say that your life is not your own. Your holidays are not your own. You need not have high expectations for time off during the holidays, because you are almost certain to be disappointed. In our case, my husband and his fellow residents made a schedule before the beginning of the next academic year, and if by chance he was off on Christmas, he certainly worked many of the other holidays. As for Christmas, we got a little bit lucky.

Our situation: Based on my sucky records, my husband worked Christmas as an intern and second-year resident. He was off on Christmas Day for the last three years of his 5-year residency.

Holidays During Fellowship

Now here’s where paths diverge completely depending on what kind of doctor you are. Fellowships are so variable around the holidays. Briefly, here are some examples of the factors involved:

1. Whether you work in a hospital or a private practice. Hospital staff is more likely to be required to cover the holidays than in private practice, where patients are more likely to be seen for elective reasons. This leads me to…
2. Whether the patients you see are being treated for emergencies or not. Obviously, if you work in a field where you treat strokes or injuries from accidents, you will be more likely to be needed on the holidays than, say, a hip replacement surgeon.
3. If you have to take “call”. There are indeed a few fields in medicine that do not require call coverage. But if “call” is required, it will likely be divvied up in some way by the call coverage team.
4. If you are on a team where other members can cover. In some cases, the junior members of the team are all that is needed on the holidays. Often, services are less busy over the holidays because elective cases and clinics are not scheduled. Sometimes, the Nurse Practitioners or Physician Assistants can handle the load without the rest of the team.
5. If you are lucky. Just kidding, just kidding. (Kind of). Sometimes, by luck of the draw, the attending on the team you’re working with has some kind of massive vacation planned, or they’ve scheduled you for a holiday break. It may have nothing to do with you but will work in your favor. Say a little prayer of thanks and move along! Yay!

Our situation: My husband was off on Christmas for both years of fellowship.

Holidays as an Attending

There are several factors involved in whether or not you work the holidays as an attending. It is largely dependent on the same factors I listed above for fellowships.

Our situation: …drumroll please…

My husband only has to work Christmas one out of every 13 years. He and the other surgeons in his practice rotate every year. There are usually no clinics or elective cases scheduled on the holidays, so the on-call surgeon usually rounds, answers patient phone calls and then completes any of the more emergent cases that arise.

I am so grateful that we were one of the lucky families this year, that got to all be together, celebrating and snuggling together.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for taking this journey through the years with me 🙂 I hope this has been a helpful look into this “world.”

❤️I LOVE knowing that you are finding my posts helpful! So drop a comment below 👇 And also, tell me more about your (or your partner’s) holiday schedule! We can all learn something!

And HEY, come join my parties on Instagram or Facebook! I would be THRILLED to connect! 🎉

Today marks two months into my blogging journey and I couldn’t be happier about this decision. So excited to see you here again SOON!!!

Wishing a Happy, Happy New Year to you and yours! 🎉🍾

So much love to each of you! 💋