Working on weekends!

[PubSub]

Hi, I will be graduating ASN school this year and long story short, I do not want to work weekends... Now before you jump down my throat I didn't say I will not work weekends. I am in the Navy reserves and average 1-2 weekends gone per month. I have a 3 year old and a 5 year old and do not want to miss out on everything, I know I will miss out on somethings though! (I have been on three 8 month deployments in the last 8 years). Here is the tricky part, I want to pursue my BSN and my dream is to become a Nurse Practitioner one day. I know I need valuable working experience to be the best Nurse I can be. My wife and I have already talked about it and worst case, we understand I may be gone on every weekend for a couple years! What type of unit do I apply to work to get the best experience without working weekends? Thanks in advance!

[Wuzzie]

Hunting for unicorns my friend.

[Emergent, RN]

Out patient surgery? Doctors office? OR?

BTW, your kids are at a perfect age to work weekends since school isn't neccessary at that young age. You can spend lots of time with them!

[SaltineQueen]

If this magical unit exists, there is likely a long line ahead of you wanting to get in there.

I second outpatient surgery or doctor office, but OPS is tough to get into usually (for the aforementioned reason) and doctor's offices don't pay that great.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Yours is a bit of a dilemma. To persue your NP dream you will need to get a particular type of nursing experience that is open to an ASN new graduate.

Generally that is wherever is willing to hire and train. For a lot of us that means nights, weekends and holidays in an inpatient hospital department of LTC.

The jobs that don't require weekends generally are non-bedside positions like nurse educators, clinic, and outpatient surgery. These positions won't give you the experience you are looking for if you want to do NP.

All I can think of is if you work in a place that still has a weekend pay plan, the weekends are all booked by weekend-only staff that frees up the other nurses for more weekend time off. My hospital did away with that pay plan 18 years ago, but there might be a few still around.

[Night__Owl, BSN, RN]

The hospital I used to work for was a small private hospital which competed with a large public hospital. One of the ways they helped keep staff was having no-weekend positions.

In our ICU, there was a crew of people hired specifically for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and got a weekend differential for it. The weekday employees worked three days between Monday and Thursday. We weren't asked to work the weekend unless several people on the weekend crew were sick.

I think this is the best way to operate. There was actually a healthy demand for the weekend positions, because of the more laid back environment, the higher pay, predictable schedule with all three days grouped together. That was worth it to a lot of people, so in the two years and change that I worked there, I can count on one hand how many weekend shifts I worked, outside of holidays.

[caliotter3]

You can arrange no weekends with extended care or visit home health, however you won’t get the experience you are seeking.

[missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN]

If I respond to this post, it's going to be biting. I hope you find the job you're looking for. Best of luck in the job search.

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

Get some good experience in peds or ER, work weekends for a few years, become a school nurse. I haven't worked a weekend in 2 years! You've got to put the front end work in first though...suffer a bit through nights, weekends, holidays, etc.

[beekee]

Hospitals in my area have every third weekend positions. Not no weekend, but not every other!

Home health, ambulatory, school nurse, adult day care. Outpatient oncology or surgery. Some procedural areas, like OR, endo, and cath lab, have minimal weekends requirements. Clinic dialysis isn’t open Sunday’s (I think). Occupational health.

[Wuzzie]

2 minutes ago, beekee said:

Home health, ambulatory, school nurse, adult day care. Outpatient oncology or surgery. Some procedural areas, like OR, endo, and cath lab, have minimal weekends requirements. Clinic dialysis isn’t open Sunday’s (I thi

Not great options for a new grad. I work in one of those types of units. We won't consider a new grad. It was tried a few years ago as a part of a residency. It was a complete and utter failure.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

You have a lot going against you in finding a position. You want critical care experience for future goals and you don't want weekend hours (and probably not holidays either if I had to venture a guess and probably not nights either, right?). Combined with a two year degree, you have vastly closed your doors of opportunity.

Time to rethink your goals. Odds are you can't have everything.