RN job with 'normal' hours?

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I will be graduating as an RN when I am 27. My plan (however we all know things rarely go according to plan) is to work full-time for about 3ish years, then start my family. It is my dream to obtain an RN job that is M-F dayshifts with weekends off as I want to be able to spend my weekends with my family. I have never had a job with weekends off & it is horrible to miss out on every event because of work.

I know a lot of you are going to say I will have to 'pay my dues' before I can even dream of weekends off, however I have been reading quite a bit on this topic on these forums & i see quite a few people have somehow gotten nursing jobs with weekends off.

I am curious as to what positions this would be possible with? And how to best set myself up for these positions? Ideally I'd love public health as my mom was a PH nurse & she was always home around the same time we'd get home from school & she had weekends off with us. However I know PH jobs are difficult to get. Any tips on what I can do straight from school to 'up' my resume for these 'normal' hours jobs?

Thanks! :)

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Ideally I think you are going to find these type of jobs are going to require experience and networking. I know someone that tried a few times to get into the VON before she finally made it and she had 4-5 years under her belt

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And don't forget these jobs are usually allotted by seniority or a need for accommodation due to injury. I've interviewed for clinic jobs that are what you describe and despite having over ten years with my health authority, I lose out due to lack of seniority or a need to accommodate a bad back, knee, sleep disorder.

Sucks to be me at times.

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Specializes in Home Care.

Nursing is 24/7

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

Doctor's office but they generally want experience. I don't know what M-F job is available to new nurses. I've only had one but it was 2-10. The rest were all 12s, days & nights. Even when I worked PDN it wasn't M-F 9-5.

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Specializes in NICU.

I've got to agree with the rest...nursing is a 24/7 job and there are very few jobs with the hours you want. The nurses I know who work in clinics or public health have many years experience. There is a chance you might get one of those jobs but I wouldn't depend on it, jobs are scarce and you have to take what you can get.

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I worked in ortho when I graduated nursing school for about a year then applied for endoscopy. It is M-F with some on call. They originally were pushed to open Saturdays but with budget cuts they were forced to put that plan on indefinite hold. I love this job but it was a five percent pay cut because of the outpatient clinic status. In our hospital interventional radiology and dialysis are also day shift m-f but all have on call components.

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Dialysis (outpatient) runs to 2300 six days a week in my area. And again no straight shifts. All rotate

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Have you considered public health nursing? Most community nursing positions (health units, doctors offices, school nursing, ect) have regular weekday hours.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Most jobs that have the hours you want require many years of bedside experience first.Jobs in my hospital with the desirable hours are awarded by seniority. Right now the is a M-F day job and it is between 2 RNs with 20+ years on the job.

Did you not realize that nursing is 24/7?

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I wouldn't get discouraged. There are jobs out there with better hours you just have to look. They may just not be in the hospital and they may pay less.

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I guess it depends what field of nursing you enter. If you want to specialize then it might be possible...and even then you would need seniority within that specialty (ie. working in a day surgery centre, working within perinatal clinics etc). Any clinics, chemo, radiology, oncology, occupational health etc. can have day hours monday to friday, but usually require more education and actual worked hours. :)

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