"12 hour shifts! That means you get 4 days off a week! I bet you can plan a million vacations!"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Let me just book that cheap airfare 6 months in advance, mmmkay?

Should I buy that theater or concert ticket for the soon-to-be-sold-out show next month? Sure... 50/50 chance I might have to sell it!

Some RN jobs seem like retail in that you only know your schedule 1-2 weeks in advance. I can imagine that it is a great challenge to keep a unit staffed as a NM with changing census and time off requests. Putting people on a relatively fixed schedule is one solution, but that can result in unfairness with someone always working weekends.

How far ahead can you plan?

I know my schedule well in advance (more than a year) so it's easy to plan. I work two 12 hour days and two 12 hour nights with five days off, repeat. So the little shift worker app on my phone means I can see several years ahead actually.

I work a set schedule. With the exception of the holiday season, they tweak that to make it fair for everyone. But, we all have set schedules with every other weekend working. I never have off more than 3 days in a row, and I work nights, so vacations can't happen on days off lol, though every now and then I'll go away for a night on the weekend.

When I want to take vacation, I just request a PTO day or two. Granted, I use common sense; I don't request a PTO day on holidays, and it's first come, first serve. So, if I happen to request a night that is already requested, I won't get it. But, I've been lucky so far that way.

I'm surprised that most nurses on here don't have set schedules.

Oh n/m. Duh. Time for bed. There's only been 11 votes so far lol.

Bump for more responses

At my last job, we had no fixed schedules. The 8-week schedule came out 2 weeks before it started. Schedule requestes were due 4 or 6 weeks before that.It sucked.Now I have a pattern. I can plan travel. I can sign up for a class. I love it.

No fixed schedule here, but we do self scheduling. We can put an X over a day we need to have off for a prior commitment and those are respected as long as nobody is abusing it and the floor is covered. I have never had my NM change the schedule I put down for myself. We set our schedules usually 8-12 weeks in advance and it becomes "locked in" about a month in advance.