Working hard or holiday working?
Hospital staff keeps the ER running, holiday or not
While everyone is enjoying a bountiful feast and spending time with their families on Thanksgiving, Danielle Lichter and Tina Quintana will be tending to the ill and injured in the Lodi Memorial emergency room.
The two have dedicated their lives to helping those in need, even though that might mean being away from their families on holidays.
Quintana, who has been working as an EMT in the ER for more than four years, will be spending Thanksgiving in the ER for the first time. However, she has sacrificed several other holidays such as Christmas Eve, Easter and New Year’s Day to serve the public.
“I have a passion for helping people and trying to make them feel better,” she said.
According to Quintana, EMTs are required to work a certain number of holidays each year, and they rotate so everyone can have a chance to spend a holiday with their family. In addition to working on Thanksgiving, Quintana will also be working New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Because she is working on Thanksgiving Day, she and her family have scheduled an alternate day to have Thanksgiving.
“This year my husband and the kids will be going over to his side and spending some time with the family while I’m at the hospital taking care of people, and then we’re just going to switch our day together and cook and have the Thanksgiving tradition on Saturday instead,” Quintana said.
Quintana said spending Thanksgiving away from her family isn’t that hard because she knows she is helping people.
“My family is very understanding. This is the job I chose and that’s what comes with it,” she said. “People never choose when they’re going to be sick, so somebody’s got to help and have a smiling face and take care of them.”
Quintana said she and her co-workers share a lot of memories together on the holidays.
“Even if we’re not at home we still try to make it a holiday. As employees we are a work family, so we still celebrate. We’ll bring a potluck and celebrate that,” Quintana said.
Lichter, who is a charge nurse, works on Thanksgiving every year. She usually works the night shift but this year will be her first time working the day shift.
“I work many holidays throughout the year, but it’s especially difficult sometimes when you have to work Thanksgiving or Christmas, those times where you’d much rather be home with your family. But you realize that there are also very sick patients who are in need of our assistance as well,” Lichter said.
She said this year will be different because she will go into work at 7 a.m. and will not get off until 7 p.m.. Lichter said her family plans to have a later Thanksgiving dinner when she gets home from work.
Lichter said the volume in the emergency room during the holiday varies. Sometimes it is extremely busy, while other times it’s not busy at all. Like Quintana, Lichter feels as though her co-workers in the ER are like her second family and they make the best of the holidays together. They each sign up to bring a dish and have a pot luck.
“It’s like spending the day with your family away from your family,” Lichter said.
While she enjoys the time she spends with her co-workers on the holidays, Lichter finds it difficult to be away from her children.
“I have five kids, so every year they always ask, ‘Mom, are you going to be here?’ And you kind of have to pick and choose because we are required to work either Thanksgiving, Christmas or News Year’s,” she said.
Like Quintana, Lichter has had several interactions with patients that have made missing the time with her family worthwhile.
“We’ve had sick and dying patients that came to spend their last moments with us on the holiday,” she said. “We’ve had times that patients came because they didn’t have family, and that’s the saddest part. They would rather come in just to be surrounded by us and at least feel some sort of family than be home by themselves.”
Lichter encourages people to remember those who sacrifice time with their families during the holidays to serve the public.
“People take it for granted. Most jobs you get holidays off, you get weekends off. But those who are out there risking their lives such as firefighters, police and health care, all those people who constantly have to miss time with their families just to take care of society, we truly, truly need to be thankful for them,” Lichter said.