RNs: How much vacation time do you get?

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

  1. Full-time RN, how many weeks off per year?

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      8 or more!
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      Not a full time RN (see results)

111 members have participated

I love vacations. I couldn't find any polls on this and was curious:

How many weeks of vacation do you get per year?

Include: Vacation, PTO, personal days, guaranteed off holidays.

If you work 3 12s an get 6 days off, that is 2 weeks.

Do NOT include: Sick time, CME days, holidays that are not guaranteed off.

ONLY answer if a FULL TIME RN. (LPN, CNA, NP, etc feel free to start a poll, I'd be curious)

Other questions:

Is your workplace permissive about vacations?

Do they force you to use vacation days when you are called off d/t low census in order to keep FT status and bennies?

Who gets the prime dates? Is there a fixed seniority system? First come first served?

Whoever the manager likes most?

How far ahead do you have to ask for vacation?

Can you bank it until next year? Or is use-it or lose-it?

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Well thats a loaded question. But with some math, I could technically take off 2+ months of the year and still have a job. For you see, If I work 6 on, then take 8 days off, I can take those next 6 off, take another 8 days off then come back and work 6 in a row. So 8+6+8=22 days in one month not working. I would still have over 10 days of PTO to burn too with that. AND PTO accrues when you use PTO.

So like I said, I could take a lot of time off :D

1 Votes
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

We get 8 hours of vacation time (not PTO) each 2 week pay period. We also get 4 hours of sick time each pay period. The vacation ends up being 208 hours a year 208 / 8 = 26 days off. 208 / 12 = 17.3. 17 days at 3 days (12 hour shifts) = 5.6 weeks off / year.

1 Votes

Out of curiousty but do any of the vacation days roll over? And is it true that you accumulate more days as you progress or does it stay the same?

1 Votes

The facility I work at has employees accrue time off each pay period. We get 6 hours every two weeks which is equivalent to 1 day a month. So a total of twelve days a year. That's about four weeks in nursing time if you work three twelve hour shifts a week and can get approval to request off!

1 Votes
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Future_Chief_CRNA said:
Out of curiousty but do any of the vacation days roll over? And is it true that you accumulate more days as you progress or does it stay the same?

*** Ours roll over up to to a point. You can only have about 700 hours. Good news is they pay you 100% if you sell it back to them but can only do it once a year. Ours stays the same.

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

It looks better out there than I thought. Are the extra vacation weeks for extra years only awarded for seniority at the company where you work or also for years of experience?

1 Votes
Specializes in Cardiac.

I work weekends, Friday-Sunday, so If I take 2 weekends in a row, I get 18 straight days off and I only use up 72 hours. It's pretty awesome.

1 Votes

There is a double edged sword to this, but the answer is as much as I want. I am an agency/per diem nurse. I go in between contracts or let the agency know when I'm going. 2012 has been a stressful year so I have probably taken a total of 4 to 5 months off for vacation time.

1 Votes
Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

We get 6 hours of PTO per pay period, which translates to between 2-3 weeks/year. We don't get any paid holidays off (I work in a non-essential unit, and if my work day falls on a holiday where our unit is closed, we have to take PTO).

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

We accrue 4.36 hours every 2 week, which amounts to about 2.8 weeks per year. We also get about 14 days off for holidays (I work outpatient Mon-Fri, no weekends, no holidays). I think we also get 3 days of education days and I'm not sure about personal days? After 10 years of employement, the holiday and sick accrue at about 5.2 hrs every 2 weeks.

1 Votes
Specializes in Cardiac.
Life_is_good_1973 said:
We accrue 4.36 hours every 2 week, which amounts to about 2.8 weeks per year. We also get about 14 days off for holidays (I work outpatient Mon-Fri, no weekends, no holidays). I think we also get 3 days of education days and I'm not sure about personal days? After 10 years of employement, the holiday and sick accrue at about 5.2 hrs every 2 weeks.

Wow, and I hear people complain at my job. When I first started right out of nursing school, I accrued 7.3 pto every 2 weeks, can not bank more than 192 a year. Now I just switched to just weekends, and I accrue 5.5 every two weeks, I've been there a year and a half. I guess this is better than I thought. Either way, I really don't take much time off, but it is interesting how different hospitals are. Now where do you work? I work in Pennsylvania, near the NYS border.

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

I work in Nevada. We can bank them up to 200, I think? Never got anywhere close because I'm always taking time off! We have a supervisor who pretty much gives us whatever days off we want. It's quite nice. I have yet to be denied a day off. And of course, we get holidays like Thanksgiving (and the day after Thanksgiving), Christmas, New Year's Day, 4th of July, etc. off with pay. I also work for the state so my pay is only around $30/hr but with how the hospitals are cutting back around here, I think that's close to what I would be making if I still worked in a hospital setting. But I have NO desire to ever return there!

1 Votes
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