Advice for vacationing?

[pediRNjen]

Hi all, I hope this is received well but I wanted to know if any of you had any advice or suggestions on a job that I can take vacations with. My spouse and I take vacation frequently. We wanted to make it a new 2019 goal of quarterly vacations, if possible, if I can find a job to do that with. In my experience, especially new hires, you are allowed 2 weeks if that for the first few years. Should I look into part time or PRN because this fantasy job doesn't exist? I do need benefits and was hoping to get that through my employment. We are relocating to a new state in a few weeks and I'll be looking. I know about travel nursing, any other suggestions please let me know!

[Asystole RN]

Pretty much any hospital job or other job with 12hr shifts permits this. When you schedule you try to lump your 3 in a row and then you have a solid 4 days off, move your first week's days to the beginning of the pay week and the second work week's days to the end of the week and you have a week off without taking any days off.

[Swellz]

I agree with Asystole. If your scheduler is flexible and you aren't trying to take 3 week vacations every other month, you should be able to take a vacation with minimal PTO. Also, it will depend on how your new job works, but I got more PTO from working OT. Travel nursing is an option, but I wouldn't go through the trouble just to get the vacations, especially if you prefer a steady job. Travel nursing is fun, don't get me wrong, and it might be a solution worth looking in to, but it isn't necessarily your only solution.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Any decent job starts out with 4-6 weeks off, with flexibility. Find one . Best wishes.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Any 12-hour shift job will allow you to "stack" your shifts. I used to work 3 on, 1 off, 3 on and then travel every other week. I was young then, and went camping and slept on the ground. I can't sleep on the ground anymore, but I sure have lots of wonderful memories from those days!

[Emergent, RN]

My schedule is 4 in a row followed by 10 days off. My offspring and grandchildren have spread out all over the United States, so my boss was able to accommodate this with this awesome schedule.

I pick up extra shifts to supplement this part time schedule.

[Sdee, BSN]

The necessity of benefits may trip you up, otherwise working PRN would allow you more freedom to schedule vacations. Shift stacking is doable, but find that some employers get kind of tired of accommodating this kind of schedule manipulation on a regular basis. If you are pro-active and make some swaps to cover a shift or two, you should be able to work things out. Being flexible when others need time off, too, will improve your chances. Have worked with frequent vacationers who would never make a swap to accommodate the scheduling needs of others, so she burned all of her coworkers and found it much more difficult. Good luck, I work per diem and am fortunate to work when I want.

[Nunya, BSN]

On 1/17/2019 at 6:02 PM, Been there,done that said:

Any decent job starts out with 4-6 weeks off, with flexibility. Find one . Best wishes.

As a staff nurse? Where have you worked? The only job ever I got this much vacation EVER was the military.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

On 1/17/2019 at 4:25 PM, pediRNjen said:

Hi all, I hope this is received well but I wanted to know if any of you had any advice or suggestions on a job that I can take vacations with. Should I look into part time or PRN because this fantasy job doesn't exist? I do need benefits and was hoping to get that through my employment.

If you need benefits, then PRN is not an option for you. The whole point of PRN is that you are trading benefits for the flexibility PRN work provides. Some places pay PRN nurses more per hour, some may have requirements as to how many shifts a month you work, some make it clear that you are the first to be cancelled or floated in the event of low census, etc. But they all have in common that you accept the position with no benefits.

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

On 1/20/2019 at 10:47 AM, Elaine M said:

As a staff nurse? Where have you worked? The only job ever I got this much vacation EVER was the military.

It's common here, but it's grouped in with sick time. I accrue roughly 6.6 hours of PTO every 2 weeks. That works out to about 4.5 weeks off working 3 12 hour shifts a week.

We also self-schedule, so as long as I know a couple of months in advance, I can schedule myself S,M,T one week, then Th, F, Sa the next leaving me with 8 days in between without taking any time off.

[Wuzzie]

8 minutes ago, NICUmiiki said:

It's common here, but it's grouped in with sick time. I accrue roughly 6.6 hours of PTO every 2 weeks. That works out to about 4.5 weeks off working 3 12 hour shifts a week.

I’ve worked in systems like that and you have to be careful not to look at it as 4.5 weeks of vacation. One of my peers did just that and found herself in trouble when all of a sudden she needed ill time but had wasted all her PTO on trips to Vegas.

[Emergent, RN]

2 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

I’ve worked in systems like that and you have to be careful not to look at it as 4.5 weeks of vacation. One of my peers did just that and found herself in trouble when all of a sudden she needed ill time but had wasted all her PTO on trips to Vegas.

And then, probably went begging for PTO donations from others. I've seen that happen more than once. ?