Vacation time question!

Nurses General Nursing

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Hey everyone! Had a question about vacation time.

I am a new grad RN working in a hopsital and will be off my 90 day probationary period in a few days. I put my request in for vacation time (1 1/2 wks) and so far, my first wk I requested looks to be good because no one else requested it but my second week.. it overlaps into someone wanting to start their vacation time. But it looks as if anymore than 2 people requesting, then it comes to be an issue.. all depends on the schedule.

Anyways, I also wanted to book another 2 wk trip during the off season, maybe end of Sept-Oct or beginning of December. No one has requested time in that time frame so I am curious if that is kind of a guarantee that I would be able to get that vacation? And lastly, I know I need to ask management or HR but what is your policy about using vacation/PTO from one request to the next? Like since I am requesting August, can I request 2 wk at end of Sept as well or is that too close together and counts as me abusing the PTO? Curious how everyone else's system works and how mgmt handles vacation times during on and off seasons.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Strictly up to your management and HR, every employer policy is different

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

That is a lot of PTO- do you have that time accrued? If you have it, you're free to take it, but realize the senior people will get vacation time over your requests if you put in the same time- that's how it works where I work. The senior people put in their requests first and then down the line from there.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

If this is your first job, I'm confused as to how you have so much PTO. I would be very careful in your first months not to ask for too much time off.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

We have to pick our vacation time from May-Dec in Feb. You need to ask your manager how it works. Ours is all seniority based. And remember, with PTO it is usually all your sick, vacation and holiday time included in there, so if you use it all you won't have time for sick or holiday use. Could be a problem.

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If this is your first job, I'm confused as to how you have so much PTO. I would be very careful in your first months not to ask for too much time off.

Well I will get my 1st PTO in the next pay period since I will be off orientation. We get 8.9 something hours per pay period so it ends up being around 29 days a year. PTO includes vacation & sick time but I never was a person to call out to begin with, and I rarely get so sick that I cant work. So if I use 6 PTO in my 2 wk vacation in August and then another 6 PTO in end of Sept or December thats only 12 PTO that I would have used for the year.

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Another consideration you might have would be that even if you have never been so sick in the past that you had to call out from work, this is your first nursing job and it might be different. I see lots of people that never had to work night shift before finding out that they have a really hard time with the effect those weird hours have on their bodies and health. Also, if your unit has a call-off policy for low census you might find that most people use PTO to still get paid for shifts that they are called off from.

If you don't plan to keep a good stockpile of PTO for those times, you might find yourself having some problems.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

Never bank on not needing sick hours. I fell during my first year of work, broke my ankle severely and was out of work for 6 months. I used all my PTO, went on long term disability and had to pay my insurance out of my savings for 3 months. So always keep a cushion!

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
Well I will get my 1st PTO in the next pay period since I will be off orientation. We get 8.9 something hours per pay period so it ends up being around 29 days a year. PTO includes vacation & sick time but I never was a person to call out to begin with, and I rarely get so sick that I cant work. So if I use 6 PTO in my 2 wk vacation in August and then another 6 PTO in end of Sept or December thats only 12 PTO that I would have used for the year.

Be careful of using up your sick time because you think of yourself as a well person. In 2012 I had emergency surgery and was off work 10 weeks - totally out of the blue - and the amount you get from Disability Sucks - about 2/3 of your regular pay. A relatively new employee where I work just had emergency surgery and almost no PTO accrued - I ended up donating 16 hours to that person because his family has a new baby at home, But I almost never take vacation - just a long weekend here and there.

Hppy

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Well I will get my 1st PTO in the next pay period since I will be off orientation. We get 8.9 something hours per pay period so it ends up being around 29 days a year. PTO includes vacation & sick time but I never was a person to call out to begin with, and I rarely get so sick that I cant work. So if I use 6 PTO in my 2 wk vacation in August and then another 6 PTO in end of Sept or December thats only 12 PTO that I would have used for the year.
While it is exciting to be starting your first job and have benefits....I caution you to not ask for too much time and know that as the new guy you will be approved last. I would also caution you that many facilities do not allow time be used (even though it is accruing) until X amount of hours have been worked. I also caution you to be cautious in deleting all of your time for you never know when you will need time....like an illness in the family, you become ill, a death in the family, appendicitis...you just never know.
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My advice. Use your PTO. Live your life. You work to live, not the other way around.

I blow all my PTO every year.

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Specializes in L&D.

For my hospital, it's first come, first served. You have 6 months in advance to request your time...and you can use your PTO as needed, there's no abusing the PTO system....I tend to work around my vacation days....so in November, I took my family to Disney for 10 days.....We are self schedule, so I scheduled myself to work 2 days before we left, took 1 PTO day that week, 1 PTO the next week, and when I came back, I worked 2 shifts in that second week...so I got a 10 day vacation, and only used 2 days of PTO.

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