Every 3rd weekend

[Mamabear2RN]

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!

[bugya90, ASN, BSN, LVN, RN]

We do self scheduling and are required to sign up for 6 weekend shifts for every 6 week schedule (works out to every other weekend if you worked Saturday and Sunday). We have a few people who choose to work every weekend and because of this the rest of the staff only have to work 4 weekend shifts every 6 weeks to provide coverage. I prefer to work on Sunday over Saturday so I just sign up for the Sundays and I normally get the exact schedule I requested since other people want Sunday off for religious obligations. Seniority doesn't count for anything on our unit.

[groanup]

20 years ago my hospital had "weekend only" RNs who were paid extra to work every weekend, allowing for full-timers to work every third weekend.

It was supposed to be a retention perk. Once the economy tanked they did away with "weekend only" and put us back on every other weekend.

That's the way it's been ever since.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

Some job postings will specify if unit requirements are every other weekend or every 3rd weekend. At the facility where I currently work, job descriptions on different inpatient units listed different weekend requirements (some every other, some every 3rd).

One way I've seen units incentivize working the weekend is by offering $10+ hourly weekend differentials. In that set-up, it's desirable enough to work weekends that there can even be competition for those shifts. (The worst is when units don't pay weekend differential on Sunday PM shifts after 0000 since it's technically 'Monday.' In my experience, those shifts are always chronically short-staffed due to the lack of differential).