self scheduling in contract

[travl2where]

Getting ready for my first assignment, is it possible to choose which days you will be working for example work 8 days straight and have 6 days off (that would put ya at working 4 days a week). Can something like that be put into the contract or do you work whatever the hospital tells you to work once you get there? And what about holidays, I'm hoping a 8 week assignment will be available once I get all by application stuff in later this week so if I have to do 13 weeks can I ask for christmas week off?

[MissAnthrope]

As a traveler, you're at a facility to fulfill a need, and generally that means working what they need you to. Some facilities are probably more considerate than others, but as a general rule travelers should not expect to be considered first for scheduling purposes. Whether that's fair or not, it's just the way it is. It never hurts to ask, though, if they offer self scheduling for travelers, and if you really need certain days off, my suggestion is get it written in your contract. I was driving 200 miles to an assignment and I let the manager know that up front and said it didn't matter to me which days, as long as they were together so I wasn't driving back home every other day or something similar. I know there were travelers who did work a 6 on/8 off schedule, but I wouldn't assume every facility would allow that.

As for holidays - same thing applies, you can ask, but if they say they'll give you Christmas off, etc, get it in writing.