MORGANTOWN —While the majority of people are at home unwrapping gifts and spending time with friends and family, many other people are spending their Christmas working. The crew of doctors and nurses at Mon Health Medical Center are busy as always tending to the needs of patients in their departments.
PJ Jiles, an Emergency room nurse, said on a daily basis the ER will see heart problems, people with pneumonia, viruses and belly pains. Jiles said the Christmases she has worked have either been feast or famine – it’s either crazy busy or super slow.
“You just don’t know what you’re going to get when you come in that morning…so far so good, I don’t want to jinx it,” she said.
Jiles said her family has adjusted well to her having to be at work on the holidays. They did Christmas yesterday, she said it’s not bad working and it’s good to be there for people. Jiles has been a nurse for 19 years. Jiles got to go home at 1 p.m. and got to do a half shift for the holiday to spend time with her kids and her husband.
Paula Wilderotter is an Intensive Care Unit nurse, where she said they see a variety of patients. It’s a medical, surgical ICU and they also see heart patients. Sometimes they’ll even have to perform surgery on Christmas Day.
“It’s very rare but it does happen in case there’s an emergency,” said Wilderotter.
She did say Christmas Day is generally not a hectic workday, and presents itself as a much more relaxed day. She tries to make her patients comfortable while they spend their Christmas in the hospital.
“You try to make it be pleasant and joyful and you try to be as special as you can while they’re in here. Cause it’s hard for them,” she said.
Wilderotter has been a nurse for 28 years, and said she’s worked lots of holidays. She said she usually works all the holidays expect for Christmas.
“Christmas we usually work every other year, and we do split shifts, so that’s nice. The nurse coming in for me today her boy is about seven and my children are 26 and 30 so you know leave her home so she can be able to be with her family,” she said.
Wilderotter said she will go home later in the day and open presents and have dinner with her own family. As a longtime nurse her children have always been understanding that their mother has to sometimes work on the holidays. Wilderotter said she doesn’t mind working the holidays, and the people she works with are her second family.
“It’s very rewarding, cause as I said none of the families or patients want to be here so you try to make it as joyous and as relaxed as you can,” she said.
Though most people spending time in the hospital might be sick or injured, Abigail Hills and Kaila Tucker might have the best job of all on Christmas – welcoming babies into the world.
Both work in Obstetrics & Gynecology and deal with birth and post-partum care for babies and mommies alike.
“We’ve had two babies so far today. Two Christmas babies,” said Tucker clad in a Santa Claus hat.
For them, working on holidays is super fun. Alongside celebrating the birth of Christ, they can celebrate somebody else giving birth, said Hills.
“Every day is fun to work at the Birth Center but today’s extra fun cause like she [Hills] said, it’s Christmas, it’s the best gift you can get,” said Tucker.
Both said they’ve just learned as nurses to adjust their lives and plan to do Christmas the day before or the day after – and they enjoy doing their jobs.
“I think there’s comradery with your co-workers so it is kind of like you’re second family and everybody gets excited to see each other. People are festive with their hats so, it’s just something you know is going to happen but it’s a delight to do our jobs there. It’s a happy place,” said Hills.
And both women agree, watching a baby be born is amazing. Every time.
“It doesn’t get old,” said Hills, “It’s very exciting.”
