Working Nights, Weekends, and Holidays (LPN)

00:01 Nursing schedules vary widely, and this will be less of a concern if you're working outpatient, for example.

00:08 But if you're working in an inpatient setting, or you work somewhere that is open all day every day, there's a good chance that you're going to have to work nights, weekends, and maybe even holidays, at least to start out.

00:23 Now, some people don't start on nights, and I've met many that were new nurses that started on evenings, and even the very rare day shift.

00:33 But if your place of employment is open on weekends and holidays and lots of inpatient is.

00:39 There's not much honestly you can do to get out of it.

00:43 Now the benefits of working a schedule that includes some weekends, some holidays, is that you can get other stuff done during the week.

00:51 So if you work a weekend day, for example, you can have random days off during the week, you can go to the dentist, get your employments out of the way.

01:00 Sometimes go and enjoy crowded places by yourself when everybody else is at work.

01:05 And most the time you can get your kids school functions which works for many people.

01:11 Now you usually also get more money if you work weekends compared your regular pay.

01:16 Same thing usually goes for nights.

01:18 You also usually get paid pretty well when you're working holidays, you know, which that never hurts.

01:24 But it's also something to think about, "Hey, is this gonna work for your life? Is it gonna work for your family?" If every weekend is full of family things or hobbies or adventures, you may want to look into a job that would fit your lifestyle a little bit better.

01:41 Most nurses are required to work every other weekend at the very least.

01:46 One thing I realize is when I worked every weekend or even every other weekend, I was missing out on a lot of time with family, friends, cool events, special occasions.

01:57 But it did serve me well in regards to pay and my schedule for LPN school.

02:03 Because most of the time LPN nursing school is going to run Monday through Friday.

02:09 Now in terms of holidays, most health care systems only acknowledge the big ones, such as maybe Christmas, New Year's Eve, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day and Thanksgiving.

02:23 Now all of the other holidays if these are important to you, you may have to request off on those days, either work around your schedule, maybe trade shifts with a buddy, or take PTO, otherwise known as paid time off, depending on how your schedule is set up.

02:39 If you have a particular schedule that you need to fit your lifestyle, know that there's usually an option out there for you.