what does pto-u mean?

what does this mean? i know pto is paid time off. but what is pto-u?
You'll have to ask someone at your hospital to be sure. It is not a national standard abbreviation. My first thought was that it might me "unscheduled" -- as in, you called in sick or something rather than taking a pre-scheduled vacation day.

Yeah, at our facility it means unscheduled PTO.

At my old hospital PTO was referred to as "ET" (earned time). ETS was "Earned Time- Scheduled" (as in scheduled holidays, vacations or if the charge nurse called you at 5am to offer you the day off) and ETU was "Earned Time- Unscheduled" (as in, you called in sick). I'm guessing PTO-U means the same thing, unscheduled/sick days.

You're going to have to ask your hospital to be sure -- those sorts of abbreviations vary from facility to facility.