How far ahead do you know your schedule?

"12 hour shifts! That means you get 4 days off a week! I bet you can plan a million vacations!"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Let me just book that cheap airfare 6 months in advance, mmmkay?

Should I buy that theater or concert ticket for the soon-to-be-sold-out show next month? Sure... 50/50 chance I might have to sell it!

Some RN jobs seem like retail in that you only know your schedule 1-2 weeks in advance. I can imagine that it is a great challenge to keep a unit staffed as a NM with changing census and time off requests. Putting people on a relatively fixed schedule is one solution, but that can result in unfairness with someone always working weekends.

How far ahead can you plan? Last edit by SummitRN on Nov 14, '12
I know my schedule well in advance (more than a year) so it's easy to plan. I work two 12 hour days and two 12 hour nights with five days off, repeat. So the little shift worker app on my phone means I can see several years ahead actually.

I work a set schedule. With the exception of the holiday season, they tweak that to make it fair for everyone. But, we all have set schedules with every other weekend working. I never have off more than 3 days in a row, and I work nights, so vacations can't happen on days off lol, though every now and then I'll go away for a night on the weekend.When I want to take vacation, I just request a PTO day or two. Granted, I use common sense; I don't request a PTO day on holidays, and it's first come, first serve. So, if I happen to request a night that is already requested, I won't get it. But, I've been lucky so far that way.

I'm surprised that most nurses on here don't have set schedules.

Oh n/m. Duh. Time for bed. There's only been 11 votes so far lol.

Bump for more responses

At my last job, we had no fixed schedules. The 8-week schedule came out 2 weeks before it started. Schedule requestes were due 4 or 6 weeks before that.It sucked.Now I have a pattern. I can plan travel. I can sign up for a class. I love it.

No fixed schedule here, but we do self scheduling. We can put an X over a day we need to have off for a prior commitment and those are respected as long as nobody is abusing it and the floor is covered. I have never had my NM change the schedule I put down for myself. We set our schedules usually 8-12 weeks in advance and it becomes "locked in" about a month in advance.