Length of Vacation Time for Registered Nurses

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. How long is your Paid-Time Off (Vacation) at one go?

    • 3
      1 week max per time until it accumulates to 4 weeks a year
    • 5
      2 weeks max per time and another 2 weeks later in the year
    • 1
      3 weeks at first and the remaining 1 week later in the year
    • 4
      All 4 weeks together

13 members have participated

Hi Nurses~

I am looking through a career change to Nursing which i read online is all perfect for me, except when it comes to time off. I understand that vacation times differ from person to person and place to place, but in Ontario if you have a union your entitled to i believe 4 weeks paid vacation after 3 years of experience as a RN.

My question is first, are u allowed to take that 4 weeks at once throughout the year, or are u more likely to be forced to take 1 week maximum off until it accumulates to 4 weeks? please be free to tell your own personal experiences, doesn't have to be in Canada, can be anywhere in the world, US, Australia, Uk and so on.

I also notice that Ontario has 12 Holidays throughout the year, if a nurses volunteers to work in any of the holidays i believe they are entitled to a day off anytime else in the year. Are nurses allowed to combined these holidays to their vacation time to make it an extended vacation? For example if a nurse is entitled to 4 weeks vacation + 5 holidays = they are off work for 5 weeks?

One of my greatest motivation in life is to travel, usually 1 month off a year so i can cool down and explore far places of the world. I cant travel for example to Asia from Canada for a week and back, it would be disastrous and all that jet lag! the whole point of a vacation is to go somewhere far and different not somewhere close 500 km away. I am a type of person that doesn't mind working hard and long hours in a week 45hrs-56 hrs for 11 months, as long as i am able to get a chuck of vacation at one time so i can enjoy.

Please share your experiences of how likely are u to get long vacations at one go, also if thats not the case can u always get approved for unpaid leave of absent?

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Specializes in Pedi.

In the US, this differs between facilities. I earn something like 238 hours of PTO annually which is roughly 9 hrs/pay period. Our system is PTO so everything (vacation, sick time, holidays) is in one bank. We are not allowed to take more than 2 weeks off at a time on my floor but this differs between departments at my facility. People my boss likes are allowed to take more than 2 weeks off at a time as are people who are getting married. People who my boss doesn't like get told that they are not allowed to take vacations more than once every 4 months.

In case you couldn't tell, I work at a non-union facility.

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

Unless you are an experienced nurse who is working agency, I can't imagine a facility that would let you take a whole month off at a time every year. Staffing is just too tight. I have heard of exceptions being made for workers who have been with the hospital for years (and I mean YEARS) to take two weeks, but never a whole month. With agency work, however, you can just tell them you don't want an assignment for the next month and do whatever you want.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

We have some limitations...we are only allowed 2 weeks in the summer, being defined as May 15th to Sept 15, no vacation the weeks of Christmas and New Years. It is first come first serve from January 1st to May 15th. We have to sign up for vacation from May 15- the week before Christmas and it is done by seniority (the 10 most senior people sign up and then the unit signs up by seniority after that). If you want to take your four weeks in the first come first serve time you can, but that is it for the year.

Each facility is different in how they let people take vacation. In my unit, about 25% of the staff receive 4-5weeks vacation per year. Gets sticky for the lower senior people, but we are working on seeing if they will allot us more hours since we have well over 100 employees (the largest nursing unit in the hospital, and we get the same amount of hours per year as a unit with 20 people!).

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Thank you all so much for your replies, i have a better understanding of what to expect now in Nursing.

Seems like 2 weeks is the maximum u can take off, I was wondering if any of you guys have a 2D2N 5 days off are u able to choose when u can go on vacation ahead of time if the spot is available lets say;

5 days off + 4 days vacation + 5 days off + 4 days vacation + 5 days off = 3 weeks time off

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Specializes in MDS/ UR.

I think you need to seriously look beyond just vacations available as a nurse.

Like maybe why you want to be one?

Perhaps you should be a teacher. You could get the summer off and two weeks in winter.

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I earn 7.53 hours every two weeks as a nurse with

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This poster has the same thread going over in the Canadian Forum. They live in Canada and our vacation policies are quite different from the US, etc.

Maybe a mod should close this one down?

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.

I didn't vote because I can take my vacation time any way that I want to. I get 4 weeks vacation, plus 8 or 9 federal holidays and my birthday. I also get one week paid time off for continuing ed.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

The answers you receive here won't be any different than what we said in the Canadian forum. You don't get to choose when you take vacation as a brand new hire. You go when it is convenient for the unit. If you're that concerned about vacation and time off, nursing probably isn't the wisest career move.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
Thank you all so much for your replies, i have a better understanding of what to expect now in Nursing.

Seems like 2 weeks is the maximum u can take off, I was wondering if any of you guys have a 2D2N 5 days off are u able to choose when u can go on vacation ahead of time if the spot is available lets say;

5 days off + 4 days vacation + 5 days off + 4 days vacation + 5 days off = 3 weeks time off

It doesn't matter if you have this time due to you.You still can't just take it off all at once whenever you want it.You need to put in for the time and hope you get it.If someone with more seniority asks for the same time you are out of luck. The likelihood of getting a whole month off in Canada as a fairly new grad is nil.There is no point in you asking US nurses about holidays in Canada.Some union agreements require that as a part timer you have to be available a certain amount so you can"t just make yourself unavailable for weeks at a time.

I really don't think that nursing is for you if your main concern is holidays.You also show a marked lack of maturity.You ignore the answers from the people that don't don't tell you what you want to hear.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

There are some professions that you have to want to be in order to survive and thrive in it. Nursing is one of them. Teaching is another. They all share something in common: a level of difficulty and stress that goes largely unrecognized by the masses, but is quickly learned by newbies to the field. Think carefully on your motivation--and whether that motivation...whatever it might be--is enough to sustain the career. Because you may spend all that time on the education for a career change, only to end up leaving the field shortly thereafter.

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