RNs: How much vacation time do you get?

Nurses General Nursing

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

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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?

We don't get a set amount per year. We earn a certain amount each 2 week pay period. how much you earn each pay period increases with senority. I currently get about 5 hours of sick time and 5 hours of vacation time each pay period. So really, I'm earnin 10 hours of paid time off every two weeks, which is pretty good.

I like how our sick time is seperate from our vacation time. If one has a prolonged illness where I work, one need not cancel one's vacation 'cause they burned through all their PTO. I think it's stupid to have just a single "PTO bank".

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5 weeks my first year, includes holidays and sick, for me that works out to 3+ weeks vacation plus most holidays off and rarely sick.

Is your workplace permissive about vacations? Yes

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? No

Who gets the prime dates? Is there a fixed seniority system? First come first served? Whoever the manager likes most? Varies, 1st come first served but holidays based on who had what last year.

How far ahead do you have to ask for vacation? By the 10th of the month prior

Can you bank it until next year? Or is use-it or lose-it? Not sure

I work for an excellent organization.

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Specializes in Hospice + Palliative.

Im a community-based palliative/hospice full time RN. we get 5 weeks PTO, which includes vacation and sick days. Holidays do not come out of this bank - if we work the holiday we get 8 hours holiday time banked (that we can either cash out or use as vacation time). we do not ever getting called off for low census/etc, so I'm not sure what would happen in that scenario (it just never happens in our particular speciality, because we have patients scheduled every day for visits). We work one winter holiday, one summer - and get paid time and half for the holiday we work. there's 6 paid holidays, so for the ones that you dont' work we get paid regular 8 hour day. Weekends every 6 weeks, and we get off a comp day week before and week after when we work that weekend.

time off requests during holidays (thanksgiving to new years) need to be in by October 1. Time off for june-august needs to be in by april 1. Last year it became apparent that there was no system for granting summer vacation requests (no advantage for seniority or for early request - I put in my requests jan 1, and still didn't get several of the days I requested). manager heard and earful from many of us on that, so now they are planning to do a first-come-first serve)

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

A pitiful 4.7 hours every two weeks, 5.2 if I work 80 hours in a pay period. That equates to a little over 3 weeks (10 shifts/3) per year.

It is PTO and includes both sick and vacation time.

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Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

How many weeks of vacation do you get per year?

Paid time off is accrued at a set rate based on years with the organization and how many hours are worked. We accrue more PTO by working over time for example. I get off about 4 weeks per year.

Is your workplace permissive about vacations?

Meh, we can't give everyone the same time off so it is based on request need and who placed their request first. We prioritize things like time off for family emergencies (those that do not qualify for FMLA), to go do charity work, family events like weddings, et cetera. If someone is granted vacation then it cannot be taken back, but we are careful about how many people get approved in certain periods of time, especially over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break.

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?

No, you can either use PTO or 'leave without pay low census.' If using the latter you are not paid however it does not affect your benefits and you accrue vacation time for that period.

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

Generally speaking it is first come first serve, we do prioritize certain situations if multiple requests are placed at the same time. We also are careful to hold enough time that last minute requests don't cause a staffing problem.

How far ahead do you have to ask for vacation?

The sooner the more likely you are to have your request approved up to one year in advance. Requests must be placed 2 weeks before the release of the next 6 week schedule, so up to 10 weeks in advance.

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

You can carry over a certain number of hours year to year, depending on how long you have been with the organization. If you do not use them they will pay out your PTO at the end of the year.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
ThePrincessBride said:
A pitiful 4.7 hours every two weeks, 5.2 if I work 80 hours in a pay period. That equates to a little over 3 weeks (10 shifts/3) per year.

It is PTO and includes both sick and vacation time.

This is awful. Do you ever think of leaving for a place that values its nurses?

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
calivianya said:
I'm not sure about sick leave - I don't think we get that where I work. We do get 21 days of PTO per year. A lot of people have been using theirs on call out days since I live in an area of the country with awful, awful pay. It sounds like most people in my unit don't really get to use PTO as PTO.

That is the whole point of PTO rather than vacation.

Do you work in the deep south?

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Specializes in Hematology-oncology.

I've enjoyed reading the responses. Thanks for posting the poll!

How many weeks vacation do you get?

I've been working for my employer for 6 years. I currently receive 4.62 hours of vacation every 2 weeks, 4.8 hours of sick leave every 2 weeks (also used for personal/bereavement time), and 10 paid holidays. We also get 6 weeks of paid maternity leave and 3 weeks of paid paternity leave. The rate of accrual will go up at 10 years, and again at 20 years. We also have the option to earn significantly more vacation time by working OT and electing to "comp" the hours instead of receiving pay. Some of my co-workers take 8 weeks of vacation each year using this method.

Is your workplace permissive about vacation?

Our manager's first priority is to safely staff our unit. With that being said, 1-2 employees are allowed to take vacation each week (from each shift). If we request vacation, but are not approved, our manager allows us to offer up our time to others who want OT. We are pretty good about covering each others' unapproved vacation requests.

Are you forced to use vacation time for low census/call off days?

What is this low census thing you're talking about? I mean, I guess it happens rarely...usually on Christmas day. But that's about it. We literally almost always have full beds.

Are there prime days? How does senority work?

We're union, so senority is factored into pretty much everything. May through September are the "prime" vacation dates. The requests go out around February. We can request prime vacation without PTO in the bank, but must have accrued enough to take the vacation prior to the dates asked for. (Is that clear as mud?) First round requests are approved based on senority, and then the book goes out for second round requests. See above for covering each other's unapproved time. Generally nurses with 10-15+ years senority get the super prime June-July dates. Those (like me) with 5-10 years senority get May and August, and those with

Can you bank?

Yes. There is a 250 hour cap on vacation to encourage us to use it. Sick time/personal time has no cap.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
PMFB-RN said:
This is awful. Do you ever think of leaving for a place that values its nurses?

Sure have thought about it. I have been at my place of employment for two years. At four years, my accrual rate will go up to about 5.5/pay period...that at least gets me to four weeks of PTO. I would love to mention to HR how horrible this PTO rate is, but I doubt it will go over well (imo, it should be at least 8 hours since it has to cover both sick and vacation time).

I will go into work even if I shouldn't because it takes me four months to accrue one week's worth of vacation. I love to travel abroad and I need every bit of my PTO to do so.

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New nurse (6 months). I work in a pretty big community hospital. Full time 36 hours a week. I get approx 240 hours a year. That's PTO, vacation and holiday. Pretty easy to get off if u plan ahead.

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I work for the VA, first RN job.

From day 1, I get 6 weeks vacation, 12 paid holidays and 13 sick days.

I'll probably never leave :)

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
KJCnango said:
I work for the VA, first RN job.

From day 1, I get 6 weeks vacation, 12 paid holidays and 13 sick days.

I'll probably never leave ?

I thought the VA would be consistent across the board. At the Minneapolis VA nurses only earn 8 hours of vacation per pay period, that's 208 hours, or 5.2 weeks. Interesting that you get more

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