For those of you who are new to being an RN, can you tell me what your shifts are like? Do you initially get stuck with all the crappy shifts, working weekends, nights and/or a lot of holidays? I'd imagine senior nurses choose the day shifts and all the new people get stuck working 6 PM to 6 AM, and working holidays and weekends.
For the senior RNs, do you find yourself working weekends or holidays a lot anyway, or does it generally stick to the 3 / 12's week in, week out?
Also, a final question - how is vacation time as a nurse? Do you get a lot of weeks off in the year? Paid vacation? One week? Two? Is it like a typical business, where you get 3 weeks after 5 years or what?
Question #1. I actually work days at my facility of only 8 full time RN's - so no, I wasn't stuck with "the crappy shift". I actually worked 11-11 for the 1st 8 months I was an RN and the day shift RN wanted the 11-11 shift, so we traded out very recently. I also only work every 4th weekend now because we have a part time RN that works every other weekend. But even before, our manager was very insistant that we did our fair share of weekend shifts.
Question #2: Holidays.....oh boy....it's the opposite where I work, everyone wants the holiday so you don't get any holidays. Holidays are big, big money where I work....so the senior staff actually requests the holidays 1st. I have only worked 1 holiday (July 4th) since becoming an RN and actually that is the only holiday I've ever worked for this facility in almost 3 years.......
Question #3: I earn 8 hours of PTO a pay check, I can build up to 400 hours before it has to be taken. I also have an awesome schedule buddy and occassionally when we've had all we can have of the ER, we re-arrange our schedules so taking 1 day of vacation gives you 8 or so days off in a row. I actually took 22 days off this summer and used 48 hours of PTO.....it was called very creative scheduling on my part.....
I work 32 hrs per wk the afternoon shift 1500-2330. I work every other weekend, and get 16 hrs of paid time off per month. I can let that accumulate or just take days off here and there. Our hospital reconizes 6 holidays and every nurse works 3 holidays (half of them) per year.
As I was job searching, I found lots of day, afternoon and night shifts had openings. Be careful though, some institutions may have lots of openings for a reason...It may be wise to ask the employee turnover rate at your interviews.
I got offered a full time day position, but once I toured the floor and interviewed I decided I didn't want to work that floor. So I took nights (7p-7a) on the floor that I preferred. I don't really mind working nights though. I work every 3rd weekend, and we rotate holidays. I worked labor day, so I got the 4th of July off, then I worked memorial day, I'll have thanksgiving off, et al. And we do self scheduling too, so I more or less pick the days I want to work. I generally get the days that I ask for, except the odd day here and there when it is overstaffed they'll just switch me to a different day. Sometimes they'll call and ask if I want the day off if there aren't that many patients, and I'll be on call in case they need me (It's like getting paid to stay home and sleep). I also get called several times a week to pick up shifts, so there is plenty of opportunity for overtime if I want it.
Plenty of my classmates ended up with day positions though. There is kind of a high turnover rate in nursing, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a job with scheduling that you like.
As a new grad, I took a PM position (3-2330) position. On our floor, all shifts are 8 hours...PMs are usually the shifts that open up for new employees. I LOVE PMs!!! I work part time; usually 3 days a week.
As for holidays, we rotate...we all work every other weekend.
At first I was going to work a day/evening rotation, 8 hr shifts (my unit only has 8 hr shifts) however I will be working midnights. I've always worked midnights at my previous jobs and it's the shift I wanted. I work 64hrs/pay, however there are always opportunities to pick up extra shifts. We rotate holidays and have every other weekend off. PTO is accumulated by the hours you work and how many years you've been employed there. It's works out to around 6.5 hours of PTO per pay. So about 170 hours a year for me or 4.5 weeks.
mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP
1,168 Posts
Question #1. I actually work days at my facility of only 8 full time RN's - so no, I wasn't stuck with "the crappy shift". I actually worked 11-11 for the 1st 8 months I was an RN and the day shift RN wanted the 11-11 shift, so we traded out very recently. I also only work every 4th weekend now because we have a part time RN that works every other weekend. But even before, our manager was very insistant that we did our fair share of weekend shifts.
Question #2: Holidays.....oh boy....it's the opposite where I work, everyone wants the holiday so you don't get any holidays. Holidays are big, big money where I work....so the senior staff actually requests the holidays 1st. I have only worked 1 holiday (July 4th) since becoming an RN and actually that is the only holiday I've ever worked for this facility in almost 3 years.......
Question #3: I earn 8 hours of PTO a pay check, I can build up to 400 hours before it has to be taken. I also have an awesome schedule buddy and occassionally when we've had all we can have of the ER, we re-arrange our schedules so taking 1 day of vacation gives you 8 or so days off in a row. I actually took 22 days off this summer and used 48 hours of PTO.....it was called very creative scheduling on my part.....