Time off

[sasavivi]

Hello Everyone!

I am 21 years old and currently attending a BSN program. I was born and raised in Italy, and most of my family still lives there which is why I try to travel back home and visit my family every year/couple of years for at least 4 weeks (thickets are so expensive that whenever I go I try to stay for at least 1 month and spend some quality time with my family) which leads me to my question: are there any nursers out there that have family over seas and have to take long LOA to visit them? I understand that being a nurse means not getting much time off work, but for anyone who is in my situation, how easy is it for you to get time off?

I am sure that when I am a new grad I will need to sacrifice a couple of years of not being able to visit home, but after I get some experience is it better for someone in my situation to become a traveling nurse? I hear traveling nurses are allowed to take some time off after assignments, although I did read that insurance coverage is an issue, so I was wondering if anyone could explain that to me a little further.

Thanks everyone in advance!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Many of my coworkers are foreign-born and take lengthy vacations so they can visit their countries of origin.

I'll admit that these requests do cause staffing problems because, if granted, it means that one or more nurses will be unavailable for many weeks at a time.

At my place of employment, a time-off request of more than 10 days will need to be reviewed by HR, the staffing coordinator and the CNO. It needs to be submitted several months in advance. Time-off requests of four weeks are frequently granted, but if you need longer than four weeks, you lose your full-time status and benefits because it becomes a leave of absence.

It is amazing how American workplace culture is less tolerant of vacation. I sometimes envy other countries for their lengthy holidays and blocks of time off. Many US-born workers never use any of their vacation time.

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

I don't have any reason to go on a month long vacation but honestly, I could if I wanted to. We only work 12 days a month anyways! In my hospital at least you can take time off whenever as long as there are no more than three nurses off at a time.

[Farawyn]

I've worked with foreign born nurses who take 2-3 weeks consecutively. I don't remember anyone taking a month.

Oh, and take me with you. Italy? Come ON.

[mirandaaa]

Oh, and take me with you. Italy? Come ON.

I basically just came here to say the same thing.

Take me, take me!!

[resqbug]

You could work PRN and be able to schedule as much time off as you need depending on how many shifts per quarter your facility requires.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

My ex husband is from Brazil, in fact he just came back. He's been working as an LVN & just started an RN program. So there are nurses out there who aren't from the U.S. & take time off to visit their home country & family.

I echo the same sentiment, TAKE ME WITH YOU!

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Every job treats vacations differently. If this is really important to you, which it obviously is, make sure you get an opportunity to shadow and ask the nurses on the unit how vacation scheduling works while you are shadowing. I can tell you there is no way you'd be able to do this at my current job because of the way our vacation planning works, but you could have done it at my previous one.

I might even bring it up with the manager during the job interview itself. It will probably lead to some people rejecting you as an employee, but at least you wouldn't inadvertently end up working for someone who wouldn't let you take the time off.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Oh, and take me with you. Italy? Come ON.

You should just go!

That was something my husband and I realized several years ago. The only thing preventing us from traveling was us. Since that realization, we've been to three different continents!

[sasavivi]

Thank you everyone for the comments, they are really helpful!

And you are all invited to come visit Italy!