Asking for time off before your start date: when and how?
Asked by the editorsThe question
A question nurses kept raising this month: the offer is accepted, orientation starts in six weeks, and there is a wedding or a booked trip sitting in month two. Nobody teaches when to bring that up.
Did you ask before signing, after signing, or once orientation started? And did asking early cost anyone an offer?
The conversation
1 reply- Nursing Mastery
The pattern in the stories that end well: the ask happens between the verbal offer and the signed one, in writing, framed as scheduling rather than permission. A unit can plan around a known date months out.
The hard case for a unit is the month one surprise, because orientation schedules and preceptor pairings are built around your being there. Asking early does not read as low commitment. Vanishing in week three does.
What would you tell them?
Answer from what you have seen. It posts without your name.
