How is your schedule set?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm not a nurse yet - I'm applying to nursing school this year. But I'm curious as to how you are scheduled if you work in a hospital. Do you work the same 3 days/week? Or can you choose which days you want to work before the schedule is set? And how far in advance do you know which days you'll be working?

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I couldn't really find any threads like this.

Thanks!

allnurses Guide

Nurse SMS, MSN, RN

6,843 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

We practice self scheduling where I work. This means I can access the schedule a month to two months in advance and place myself "on" for whichever days I choose. We are required to work four weekend shifts (Sat/Sun for day shifters, Fri/Sat for night shifters) per month. We can place an X on days we absolutely cannot work, but are only allowed 8 of these per month. Management can and will move your days around to ensure adequate staffing, but will not move you to a day with an X on it. My manager is awesome and keeps a list of quirky personal preferences - for me, that means trying not to work more than two in a row and having most days off come in pairs. The schedule is "locked in" against any more changes about four weeks before it goes live. Once this happens shifts assigned can only be changed by switching with someone or by the manager agreeing to move you around and then actually doing that moving on the spreadsheet herself.

There are a lot of different ways scheduling works. It just depends on the culture and policies of that facility. I like our system very much. It is easy to get 6-7 days off in a row without having to take any PTO.

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

We have set weekends and holidays (the holidays change from year to year, but you know in advance which ones you'll be working). Beyond that, we have a scheduler who does the schedule. We can put in requests before the schedule comes out. Some places do a schedule block where each monthly schedule looks the same, or it can vary--depends on the scheduler and what you've discussed. I have been able to work out a set schedule. I work half-time and my husband travels for his work a fair amount, so I work the same 5 days in a row every 2 weeks and then have a stretch of 9 days off.

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

Oh, and the schedule comes out a month in advance.

Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,816 Posts

I am per diem. I work when I want and I don't work when I don't want.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN

4 Articles; 7,907 Posts

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I am per diem. I work when I want and I don't work when I don't want.

Same here. I'll set my schedule about a month in advance so I know when I'm working...and also when I'm available to pick up shifts on short notice when I'm interested.

When I was a permanent staff member, we would put in for the days we wanted to work, and then Staffing would take everyone's requests and make the final schedule. If there was a conflict as to people wanting to work the same day/take the same day off, we were encouraged to work it out among ourselves--if we were unable to resolve it on our own, Staffing usually decided the winner based on seniority. The schedule was released 6 weeks in advance.

Personally, I liked to schedule myself for two days on, one-two days off (I only had to work 4 shifts a week to be considered full time). Sometimes I'd lump my days together if I needed a long stretch of time off (e.g., Mon-Thurs one week, Thurs-Sun the next week, with 6 days off in between).

Em843

48 Posts

Thanks for the info everyone!

KelRN215, BSN, RN

1 Article; 7,349 Posts

Specializes in Pedi.

Every hospital and even every floor is different. Some nurses can work a "set" schedule with the same days every week but, in my experience, only nurses with a lot of seniority could do that... and nurses that the manager liked. We technically self scheduled when I worked in the hospital but the schedule you made for yourself was considered a "wish list" and the manager would move your shifts around to fit the needs of the unit. You may be scheduled for every shift you signed up for... or none of them. The only thing that was set was your weekend- we worked every 3rd weekend and most people were required to rotate day/night.

sbostonRN

517 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab.

We do self-scheduling at my current job, but like KelRN215 said, it's more like a "wish list". I am able to request off any days I have class or other plans and generally haven't had any issues getting those off (have only been working there for 6 months though). Our weekends are every other and we aren't able to request them off at all, unless we find someone to switch with. Generally our manager does her best to follow through on the self-schedule, but occasionally she does have to move people to ensure adequate staffing of the unit.

Usually we put in our requests about a month in advance and it's finalized a week to two weeks out.

naptimeRN

188 Posts

When I worked part time at the hospital (8 hour shifts, 3 days per week) I had to work every other weekend (3-11 Sat/Sun). Besides that there was absolutely no knowing what days I would be put on..yuck. I knew a month or so in advance. We could put in a request for a day we did not want to be scheduled on, but it involved having to turn in a slip to the scheduler and manager and getting approval from both. They seemed to huff and puff about it a bit the few times I did it. People really didn't hand them in much. There were some people who had more set schedules such as the full timers who were generally were set and a couple part timers and a few people did 12 hour shifts and those were also on set days. Wow, we were all over the place there haha.

Now I'm per diem at the hospital and my only requirements are to work one weekend shift every six weeks and one holiday per year.

cassie77775

175 Posts

We have tracks and typically 2 weeks are the same at a time. You work every other wkd but that can vary from fri sat to sat and sun or fri sat sun and sat sun mon. U also don't eve have the same weekdays. They follow a similar track but then u just get placed where u are needed. Nothing is ever the same and it's particularly frustrating.

Metalchild

37 Posts

We don't know our schedule for the coming week till the end of the week (Friday). And today (it's a Friday) I tried calling in twice to find out my schedule and no one has the time to look it up and tell me. I'm frustrated. It's hard to make plans with scheduling like this.

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