Merry Christmas From Healthcare Professionals

If it wasn't for healthcare's professionals' myriad cultures and dedication, the holidays would be a disaster.

Every year, particularly for residents in training, the holidays come, and somebody has to work. Did you know, there is a war on Christmas? The war isn't actually declared against Christmas, the war happens on the date of Christmas—it is waged on the hands, eyes, and other parts of the body of most people over the course of the holidays.

The holidays bring families together, to do things like cook meals, which involve knives. Knives often slip, and can cut you quite badly. People can get extremely drunk, and even get into fights with other members of the family. Those fights can lead to medical emergencies. People can feel suicidal, and even attempt to take their lives. And every day of the year, including Christmas, emergency rooms, inpatient hospitals, and on-call services for medical doctors are staffed by people who are working, while the rest of us are celebrating.

One of my dear friends, Jackie Arenz, is a Jewish psychiatrist— she would always choose to take an on-call shift on the holidays that she didn't celebrate, and even those that she did.

She's not the only one. There are many physicians who are Hindu, Muslims, Jews, and from other faith traditions. Those individuals, overwhelmingly, take one for the team and make sure the on-call shifts are covered on holidays so their colleagues can spend time with their family.

I've spent more than zero holidays in the emergency room on call, but many fewer than I would have if it wasn't for my Jewish and Muslim colleagues. There is a culture of collegiality, where all of us are trying to help our colleagues get home to their families. We spend time, on some holidays, in the hospital, with your family, if something goes wrong.

There are so many nurses working on the holidays. There are patient care technician is working on the holidays. There are pharmacist working on the holidays. There are doctors working on the holidays. There is a whole team working on the holidays. Every holiday. Every year. Health professionals are taking one for the human team, and working when they'd rather be with their families, so that you can be assured that if anything happens to yours, we're going be on top of it!

This Christmas, I want to say thank you to all of my colleagues who took one extra call shift on one extra holiday so that colleagues could spend time with people in their lives, and so that everyone could be assured that no matter what happens, healthcare will be available, even if some nonsense goes down.

To all of the thumbs sliced, accidentally, instead of a Christmas ham, and all the slips, falls, fractures, and emotional wounds of the holidays, we will attend to them. We thank those health professionals taking time away from their families to spend time making sure yours is OK.

To all my Jewish colleagues who, for years, have been taking a shift on Christmas, and this year it's Hanukkah too, so we can all thank our Hindu and Muslim colleagues for filling in this year!

From our very culturally mixed family of healthcare professionals to yours:

Merry Christmas, السلام عليكم ,חנוכה שמח!

We'll be on call, enjoy time with your family!