Every 3rd weekend

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I have a question for nurses who work every third weekend instead of every other. Do you have to have a certain amount of seniority before you can work every third weekend? Is the seniority level different between midnight shift and day shift?

I would love to present an idea to my supervisor about employees doing every third weekend. I know we don't have enough staff to do it for all, but I thought it could be based on seniority. Curious to see what other facilities do.

Thank you!

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I had to post...mostly because my name is almost the same as yours ;)

We do every 3rd, but it is only because we have enough staff and we do 12's. I think the idea of seniority doing every third sounds cool too if your facility could allow it. Are you in a union? If so, you should get their input.

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Very similar names!! We are not in a union. Do you have a fixed weekend that you always have to work? If so, if you have an event on one of those days, do you have to try to switch with another RN or can you request it off?

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Very similar names!! We are not in a union. Do you have a fixed weekend that you always have to work? If so, if you have an event on one of those days, do you have to try to switch with another RN or can you request it off?

We do have a fixed, rotating schedule. It's great because I know my weekends way in advance. We can take PTO when asked in advance. But need to switch with another nurse if it's after the deadline for requesting PTO.

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Specializes in Hematology-oncology.

Our union contract stipulates that all nurses must have 4 weekend days off per 4 week schedule (so basically the same as every other weekend, but it allows the nurses the flexibility to request off the weekends where they have plans).

As with most things, senority does come into play. Some of the nurses on my floor prefer to work every Fri, Sat, Sun to save on childcare costs. This allows some of the most senor nurses to work only 1 weekend per 4 week schedule.

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Specializes in Adult and Pediatric Vascular Access, Paramedic.

I am interviewing at non union hospital tomorrow and they said the schedule would include every third weekend, and of course if hired I would have no seniority. I think it honestly just depends on the unit and the staffing, and not necessarily the level of seniority.

Annie

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

My unit starts people at every other weekend before allowing them to go every third, usually after one or two years.

Every other is just ridiculous and I am so glad I have found a place that does every third. Float pool in my specialty does every fifth, but they are the first ones cancelled after overtime workers and are not part of our organization (almost like agency nurses).

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

It would depend on staffing, of course, and the culture of the unit. I know of units, nonunionized, that do everything based on seniority. I have worked on units where seniority means almost nothing.

Again, if staffing does not support it, you will never get every third weekend anyway. My first job as an RN there was a fairly robust weekend program, so I almost never had to work a weekend--even as a new grad! I have worked on units where your every other weekend was set in stone until practically the end of time. When staffing was really good, you may have gotten an extra weekend off here and there, but if a couple RNs left, and that was the end of that.

If staffing allows, make the proposal. It would be a nice retention incentive.

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My unit does self scheduling. There are some people on both shifts who schedule themselves every weekend because they like it that way.

If there are enough people on weekends each schedule, and people are happy, then the rest of the staff are not held to a strict number of weekends.

Because my unit does take ECMO, there does need to be a minimum number of senior ECMO-trained nurses available.

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Specializes in Pedi.

When I worked in the hospital, we did every 3rd weekend. Standing rotation, day/night for most people. Day weekends were Sat/Sun 7A-7P and night weekends were Fri/Sat/Sun 7P-7A. You could never request PTO on a weekend. If your weekend fell during your vacation, you had to find someone to cover it.

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At some facilities every third weekend is the norm, so it's not a bad suggestion. It was the expectation where I went to school. I wish we did it at my job now. If everyone just knew they had to work every third weekend, Sat & Sun, it would save all of the griping and "I am scheduled for every Saturday and I don't want to be etc." I think it's very reasonable.

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I have a question for nurses who work every third weekend instead of every other. Do you have to have a certain amount of seniority before you can work every third weekend? Is the seniority level different between midnight shift and day shift?

I would love to present an idea to my supervisor about employees doing every third weekend. I know we don't have enough staff to do it for all, but I thought it could be based on seniority. Curious to see what other facilities do.

Thank you!

I think if staffing permits fine. Otherwise, I don't think it's fair. Some people abuse the seniority title and others would never get the benefits. I'm not a fan of seniority gets special schedules unless it's rotated. However, i may be biased because one facility I worked at when my children were younger used to have older women pull the seniority card towards those of us with small children during holidays and ended up with every major holiday off. Then they would turn around and come to work for holiday pay which meant we could have taken the days off and spent time with our small children. That's just hateful! I despise the seniority game because it's ripe for abuse. But that's just my $0.02.

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