Holidays are often a time of celebration. Whether you're planning get-togethers with friends, traveling out of town for the festive season, or staying local, it's essential to understand how best to take paid time off (PTO).
Working as a nurse likely keeps you on your toes year-round—both figuratively and literally—and knowing how to maximize your PTO in healthcare will help give you a much-needed break.
In this guide, we’ll help answer all your PTO questions for the end-of-the-year holiday season, one of the busiest times to work in a care facility or hospital. Taking holiday PTO can be simple once you're familiar with the ins and outs of your rights, how to approach your employer about taking PTO, and how to take advantage of holiday PTO.
The Importance of Paid Time Off in Nursing
While it's a rewarding career, nursing can also be incredibly stressful. You work long shifts on your feet in a fast-paced environment where the stakes are high. Experiencing stress, anxiety, and burnout is common for nurses, especially during a pandemic.
According to a study of nurse participants, including registered nurses (RNs), student nurses, licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), nursing administration clinical assistants (CAs), and advanced practice nurses (APNs), the majority of participants found COVID-19 to be overwhelming. Nearly 80 percent of nurses reported feeling anxious, with the study indicating that nurses have experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression during the pandemic. Female nurses, in particular, were found to experience more significant distress and were twice as likely to experience “greater psychological burden” than their male counterparts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the nursing profession, with nursing staff shortages and other staffing challenges becoming commonplace. Nurses across the country are speaking out and taking action against conditions that have led to these shortages, creating more challenging nursing work environments.
Given these ongoing challenges in an already demanding job, nurses must take paid time off so they can get much-needed downtime to decompress before going back to work and caring for others.
How To Know if You Can Use Vacation Time During the Holidays
Knowing your vacation time rights as a nurse during the holidays is important. You might wonder, “Can I use my PTO whenever I want?” Well, the short answer is that it depends. Even if you request it, your employer has the right to deny your PTO request. Depending on your employer, you may have some options:
1. Understand What Types of Paid Time Off Are Guaranteed
It’s important to understand that not all types of leave are guaranteed. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require employers to give workers a paid vacation. Fortunately, many employers offer paid vacation time to their employees under a formal paid time off policy anyway.
2. Review Your Employer’s PTO Policies
Before you request paid time off, check your workplace policies regarding holiday leave. PTO may or may not be granted during busier periods based on factors like seniority, required notice periods, blackout dates, or rotating schedules. Understanding the protocols for requesting time off ahead of your request can improve your chances of getting it approved.
3. Familiarize Yourself with Exceptions for Contract Workers.
While paid time off isn’t usually guaranteed by law for contract workers, there is an exception. According to PurelyHR, “For contract work that falls under the McNamara O'Hara Service Contract Act or the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, PTO may be mandatory.”
Additionally, the company states, “If an employee requests time off that's mandated by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or any other labor law, the time off must be given. That said, the FMLA only requires unpaid leave.”
As a nurse who may be working in a range of settings, from a hospital emergency room to a medical spa, familiarize yourself with the holiday time off policy in your contract to know whether you fall under the above acts where your PTO requests may be mandatory. Most importantly, the facility will ultimately have the final say when you can take PTO in healthcare.
How Does PTO Work for Hourly and Salary Employees?
Time off policies for workers vary between salaried and hourly or per-diem clinicians. The benefits for full-time, staff, or salaried employees are typically better. Still, you should know your facility’s PTO policies to understand how they might affect your holiday plans.
PTO Policies for Salaried Nurses
Your job contract will state the terms of PTO for salaried employees and should be your first point of reference when planning your paid time off. Your contract will likely state the number of PTO days you have per year and other terms related to using them, such as the ability to roll over unused PTO days from one year to the next.
Some employees get access to their PTO days as they work throughout the year. For example, you may only be able to take some of your PTO days at the beginning of your contract but will have access to them as you work more hours, with a certain number of work hours or shifts being equivalent to one PTO day.
Personal days, wellness days, or other days you need off may be detailed in your contract or employee handbook. Reference this for information on whether you can request these days off in addition to your PTO or if they will be deducted from your PTO.
Hourly Nurse PTO Policies
The Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require that facilities pay hourly workers for the time they do not work, such as vacation days or national holidays. If you're working in an hourly position, PTO is entirely up to your management’s discretion.
Even if an hourly clinician receives PTO, they may face more constraints on when they can use it, as their absence directly affects their pay. Sometimes, hourly workers may also need to find another colleague to cover their shifts or adhere to other scheduling policies when requesting time off.
How to Get the Most from Your PTO during the Holidays
If you want to better understand how hospitals and clinics manage holiday schedules, check out Nursa's resource on holiday rotation schedules for nurses. The best way to find out how your current workplace handles this is to ask. If you can do this early enough, you can plan how to take advantage of holiday PTO well in advance.
This article, which describes itself as a “meticulous approach to maximized chilling,” features some helpful tips on how to take advantage of holiday PTO. By being strategic and planning when to take PTO, you can more than double the number of days you have off. If you're a traveler, you'll find some of these tips for taking PTO for travelers particularly useful.
If you're working during the holidays and are sad to miss out on the holiday fun, consider taking on a nursing job that doesn't require working on the holidays, such as a per diem nurse, an online educator, or a work-at-home nurse.
