How much vacation or PTO time for years worked in the USA for RNs?

I am curious how my hospital ranks in vacation time given to RNs on hire and for years of service etc. We get 2 weeks for 10 years, then 3 weeks for another 10....I think this is low for the job that we do. Some people get as much as 5 weeks for higher ranking positions. Thank you for any help you can give me. Last edit by 2monkeys on Jan 25, '08 : Reason: misspelled words
I get about 4 weeks (12 days) and I've worked at my current hospital for not quite 2 years.We accumulate PTO each shift worked. If you work overtime, then it accumulates faster. The longer you've been there the faster it accumulates too, but I can't give you an exact number of weeks off for the number of years. I just know you accumulate at a higher rate the longer you've been employed.But the 4 weeks I mentioned is PTO, meaning it's sick time, as well as vacation.

Most places I have worked gave one week after the first six months and two weeks for the second year, but after that it varied greatly. Yours does seem a little low.

RNs get 3 weeks vacation from time of hire until (I think) five years, then it goes up to four weeks vacation. Managers start out at four weeks. Separate from that is holiday time, personal time, and sick time; those are pretty much standard I think (7 paid holidays, two personal days, whatever sick time you accrue). You earn more vacation time the more you work; it accrues based on the hours you work.

The first unit I worked, you accrued 8 hrs of paid time off for every 2 wk pay period, which built up over time. The unit I am in now gives 4 weeks of vacation a year, then 5 after 10 years of service (I think)

What Steve said, plus six paid holidays off, three educational days for conferences or certifications or whatever, one sick day per month (although if you used them all I imagine you'd get fired) and two personal days. One must be scheduled in advance, and one to be called in the day of for an emergency. That caught me in a real bind when I tried to ask for mine four days in advance for a family funeral. It wasn't the day of, so they refused it as an emergency, but it wasn't put on the schedule in advance, so they just told me no. My manager is aaaaaaaawesome. [/sarcasm]

I am also wanting to see how other hospitals handle sick and vacation time. We are wanting to bring this up to our board of managers, and I was hoping to gather some info from other parts of the country. We don't actually get and "sick days" we get an "extended illness balance" (EIB) which is accumulated at a very minimal rate and the policy actually states that you cannot get paid from you EIB until you have been out sick for more than 6 consecutive calender days. In the mean time you have to use whatever PTO you have. You would get paid from the EIB starting the 7th day of your illness. Does this sounds like we are being taken advantage of? And how are holidays paid? We accrue paid time off (PTO) as we work. something like 7 hours per 80 hour work period for new hires then it increases as we work there longer. And if we are not scheduled on the holiday they take 8 hours of our PTO. Again does that sound right? How are other facilities managing the PTO and sick time?

Quote from Rottie1I am also wanting to see how other hospitals handle sick and vacation time. We are wanting to bring this up to our board of managers, and I was hoping to gather some info from other parts of the country. We don't actually get and "sick days" we get an "extended illness balance" (EIB) which is accumulated at a very minimal rate and the policy actually states that you cannot get paid from you EIB until you have been out sick for more than 6 consecutive calender days. In the mean time you have to use whatever PTO you have. You would get paid from the EIB starting the 7th day of your illness. Does this sounds like we are being taken advantage of? And how are holidays paid? We accrue paid time off (PTO) as we work. something like 7 hours per 80 hour work period for new hires then it increases as we work there longer. And if we are not scheduled on the holiday they take 8 hours of our PTO. Again does that sound right? How are other facilities managing the PTO and sick time?

At my hospital we get 16 hours of PTO per month (for 40/hr week employees)This equals 192 hours per year or 4.8 weeks per year.After five years employment it increases to 20 hrs per month which is 6 weeks per year.However, we do not get "sick time" - we have to use PTO for sick days....good for those of us who rarely need to call in.

Is it possible to take one month off a year at a large hospital? I like to travel one month a year or teach summer English camps. Can you see a large hospital allowing me to take one month off at a time? I am willing to work 50 hours a week the other 48 weeks of the year.

I work in the UK and i have worked on my ward for 2 years now and i get 7 weeks vaction and then after 5 years i gety 8 weeks.....and i want to move to the US to get just 2 weeks?????????

As a state employee I earned 2.5 weeks the first year plus 2 weeks sick. After 5 years it went to 3 weeks. After 7 it was 3.5 weeks. After 18 it went to 5 weeks per year.As a VA nurse I started at 5 weeks as an RN plus 2 weeks sick leave.These are all accrued based on FT work.