most days off and reasons

[MD22412]

anyone get days off during clinical rotations and for what reasons besides sick/wedding/funeral?

some fam is having get-together and my cousin is graduating one weekend in July and wondering how many days max ppl get for these things

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MD22412]

Family get together? Wouldn't even try.

Graduation? Would try to swing a weekend, but know that its not a guarantee.

am not privy to the process. is this just for surgery or all rotations? wondering abt weekday for travel (flight times)

 

[MD22412]

thanks for the input

 

[Kaustikos]

am not privy to the process. is this just for surgery or all rotations? wondering abt weekday for travel (flight times)

All rotations. My rotation literally told me unless I was sick/on my death bed, to not even try missing a day. I missed a day for IM because of food poisoning (vomiting ftw!) and was actually feeling sick at the end of the day prior to "calling in sick". The residents/attending were cool, but it's the administration that can be the problem. I emailed them that night and, to no surprise, they email me back requiring a written note from a doctor excusing me from clinic duty. Do you know how much fun it is driving to a clinic just to get checked for 15 minutes to "prove" yes you're sick? I got the note, but it's not fun. Also, I learned that the CVS/Walgreen's minute clinics don't do vomiting/diarrhea. Which I kinda get... but here I am driving 5 minutes and pulling over because I think I'm going to puke and then repeating that several times over.

So, ultimately, I'd say ONE day off is your best bet. You're expected to treat this like work, even if you're not doing any.

 

[notbobtrustme]

am not privy to the process. is this just for surgery or all rotations? wondering abt weekday for travel (flight times)

it's so variable. On FM, I was there 6 days a week; Saturdays were half-days. Psych was M-F, 9-5ish. IM/Surg were both 6 days a week. Neuro was 5-6 days a week. Emed was 16 shifts in 28 days. Peds was 5-6 days a week. Ob/gyn was 6 days a week.

Typical hours were 7-5ish, depending on case load and how the residents/attendings felt.

Most schools have a policy on missed days; ours is that you get 1 additional day off with approval, at least 2 weeks in advance. Weekends are not guaranteed. All days off must be made up (eg you'll eat one of your other days off for this day off).

This is pretty typical. Some schools are more hardcore, some are more lenient, but on the whole, you can expect the above to apply to the vast majority of situations.

 

[Psai]

went to my brothers graduation
i asked my resident to leave early on saturday. i'd been busting ass since then so he was ok with it. didn't involve administration. left in the afternoon. took a bus back home, drove to his school on sunday, attended graduation and then took a plane back to school that evening
the next week sucked hardcore, was tired from the beginning

 

[Mass Effect]

All rotations. My rotation literally told me unless I was sick/on my death bed, to not even try missing a day. I missed a day for IM because of food poisoning (vomiting ftw!) and was actually feeling sick at the end of the day prior to "calling in sick". The residents/attending were cool, but it's the administration that can be the problem. I emailed them that night and, to no surprise, they email me back requiring a written note from a doctor excusing me from clinic duty. Do you know how much fun it is driving to a clinic just to get checked for 15 minutes to "prove" yes you're sick? I got the note, but it's not fun. Also, I learned that the CVS/Walgreen's minute clinics don't do vomiting/diarrhea. Which I kinda get... but here I am driving 5 minutes and pulling over because I think I'm going to puke and then repeating that several times over.

So, ultimately, I'd say ONE day off is your best bet. You're expected to treat this like work, even if you're not doing any.

Shame on your school. That's absurd.

OP, it depends on the rotation and on your school. I'm at a large academic center and the students have most weekends off on most rotations (not all). So the weekend thing might not be a problem. On psych, we're pretty cool about students missing a weekday or two. It's not a big deal. It's probably a big deal on medicine and it's definitely a big deal on surgery.

 

[styphon]

All rotations. My rotation literally told me unless I was sick/on my death bed, to not even try missing a day.

I was also told similar during medical school.

But I missed days for the flu x 2, mono, and multiple outpatient surgical procedures.

I also missed a day when my house was broken into (while I slept) and my car was stolen (suppose I had no way to get to the hospital anyways) - my attending at the time was very angry about this reason.

 

[DocVapor]

I also missed a day when my house was broken into (while I slept) and my car was stolen (suppose I had no way to get to the hospital anyways) - my attending at the time was very angry about this reason.

You're saying your attending was mad at you for not coming in? Wow.

I was in clinic one day and got a fraud alert from my bank. My attending offered me the rest of the day off to deal with possible identity theft issues. I only took an hour or so then went back, but I can't imagine someone being so inconsiderate. I mean it's not like someone's life depends on the medical student.

 

[styphon]

You're saying your attending was mad at you for not coming in? Wow.

I was in clinic one day and got a fraud alert from my bank. My attending offered me the rest of the day off to deal with possible identity theft issues. I only took an hour or so then went back, but I can't imagine someone being so inconsiderate. I mean it's not like someone's life depends on the medical student.

They were upset I didn't come back later in the day. They were also upset it happened the first day of the rotation (like you can plan home robberies)

 

[Kaustikos]

You're saying your attending was mad at you for not coming in? Wow.

I was in clinic one day and got a fraud alert from my bank. My attending offered me the rest of the day off to deal with possible identity theft issues. I only took an hour or so then went back, but I can't imagine someone being so inconsiderate. I mean it's not like someone's life depends on the medical student.

It doesn't surprise me. Some rotations are beyond understanding like plastics here. My car was broken into. I paged the resident and told him what happened. He's like "Uh... Just don't come in? You kinda need to take care of your car."
But other rotations threaten to fail you if you are absent because of interviews because it's a "core clerkship" and we should know better. It's hit or miss. I also missed several days of plastics because of step 2 cs in Pennsylvania because I was snowed in. Everyone is like "You don't want to do plastics, you worked hard while you were here. Also, we don't want you to die trying to come back."