Hating weekends and holidays!

Nurses Career Support

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Specializes in Cardiology and Vascular Surgery.

Hi! I was just wanting some advice on different jobs I could look into that don't require weekends or holidays? (or at least minimal weekends).

Currently I am working at a hospital on a cardiac surgery unit and love my job and the people I work with. We are required to work every other weekend and 2 holidays a year. I just feel like I miss so much stuff on the weekends with family and friends which really gets me down. Like right now my boyfriend is out of town with his family to go to his family reunion which I can't attend because I work all weekend.

I am also going to school to get my masters degree and do have class 2 nights a week, so I am very busy.

Any advice or suggestions would be very appreciated! Thanks :)

0 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Only two holidays a year? You are lucky. Seriously.

Most Nursing Jobs are 24/7 unless you get out of acute care. MD offices, school nursing, insurance companies don't require holidays and weekends some to most of the time. Of course, those jobs come with a significant pay cut. Didn't you know this was a fact of nursing before you pursued it?

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

This is pretty much what you signed up for when choosing nursing as your career. There isn't really any advice any of us can give you. Hundreds of thousands of nurses before you have made the same sacrifices or more. What you have is actually pretty sweet. Yes there are M-F positions but they are often difficult to get and have their own set of issues and their own sacrifices. Pay and benefits are a big one. Loss of skills can be a possibility. Also, once out of acute care it's not always easy to get back into it if you find the M-F gig is not your cup of tea. A lot of office nursing is paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. Not to mention endless phone calls. You will have to decide what sacrifice is worth what gain.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

You may not find all M-F jobs as your cup of tea either. I am an OR nurse, work M-F, don't work weekends, don't work holidays. The downside? Call. I take call every 4th weekend and one summer and one winter holiday. That's in addition to call requirements during the week. Basically, I work one full time job (scheduled shifts M-F) and one part time job (all the call- averages about 32-40hours during the week, not including the weekend requirements). I am tethered to my phone for the entirety of the part time job. Don't get me wrong; I love my job and what I do. You just have to accept that those M-F jobs will have parts you don't like as well. No job is perfect.

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