How much time off after residency/fellowship?

[nope80]

How much time is everyone planning on taking off before starting their new jobs? What are the standards you guys have heard of?

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[gutonc]

How much time is everyone planning on taking off before starting their new jobs? What are the standards you guys have heard of?

Take as much or as little as you can afford/get away with.

I know people that have started a new job July 15, others that waited until the following spring.

 

[Raryn]

After residency, many of my friends who didn't go straight to fellowship started their jobs after they took the boards, so 6-8 weeks after graduation.

A few only took 1-2 weeks.

Those of us who went to fellowship got 0 days, unless we took some of our pgy3 vacation at the end (which I did) or your fellowship program started late (which mine didn't).

 

[visari]

yeah 4-8 weeks before the job is what I've seen most people do... Those who need the $$ will start sooner
if you have other source of income, it's not a bad idea to take some extra time off. It might be your only opportunity to go on a long trip without too much worry.

between residency and fellowship there's no such thing as a break. you finish one you start the other the following day. I was fortunate to be on an easy elective the last 2 weeks of residency and I told my fellow a few days before I was done "hey man, I'm really sorry but I'm moving to a different state here soooo.....peace out". He was cool and didn't care. Those who were on ICU or CCU or floors did not have this luxury.

 

[gutonc]

yeah 4-8 weeks before the job is what I've seen most people do... Those who need the $$ will start sooner
if you have other source of income, it's not a bad idea to take some extra time off. It might be your only opportunity to go on a long trip without too much worry.

I was going to say this too, but then I remembered that once you've got a year or 2 of attending salary under your belt, you can take a much nicer long trip.

between residency and fellowship there's no such thing as a break. you finish one you start the other the following day. I was fortunate to be on an easy elective the last 2 weeks of residency and I told my fellow a few days before I was done "hey man, I'm really sorry but I'm moving to a different state here soooo.....peace out". He was cool and didn't care. Those who were on ICU or CCU or floors did not have this luxury.

My last day of residency I was long-call (we had NF) senior on the CCU. I left the hospital and 10:30pm and came back at 6 the next morning as the BMT fellow. Good times.

 

[FutureInternist]

Whatever time is needed to study and pass boards

 

[nope80]

the problem is boards are usually 2 months after graduation...if you take that time "off", you are studying most of the time and its not really a break! seems like it would make sense if you are looking for a break to at least take a month after boards are done. i just don't know how common this is

 

[Raryn]

the problem is boards are usually 2 months after graduation...if you take that time "off", you are studying most of the time and its not really a break! seems like it would make sense if you are looking for a break to at least take a month after boards are done. i just don't know how common this is

I don't see the problem.

You finish residency on June 30. You know you're taking boards August 15 (or 20, or whatever). So you move, take your vacation for a few weeks, then study off and on for a month while settling in and enjoying not having to pull 28 hour shifts. Most people don't need to study constantly for 2 months to pass the IM boards. People study part-time while starting intense work/fellowship/whatever all the time and do just fine.

 

[nope80]

Yeah no I know. I took the Im boards and studied a few weeks and was fine. But I def could not get into vacation relaxed mode with that hanging over my head. It's more of a mental thing. You may not need all that time but I know I wouldn't want to go on vacation before hand

 

[jdh71]

How much time is everyone planning on taking off before starting their new jobs? What are the standards you guys have heard of?

Take as much time as you can before you NEED to have the green machine running again. I was off for July and had to start my attending job in August, wish I would have had longer, but billz don't pay themselves. Single people can get away with this a lot easier than families. Plus can you afford the COBRA or willing to roll the dice? Have bad asthma?? May need to get started right away, etc.

 

[nlax30]

Going into PGY-7 in July and STILL waiting for my break...... :/ Well actually saving up some vacation time to maybe take last couple weeks off in June but we'll see.

Nothing much to add besides echoing what's been said. I had classmates with all sorts of schedules, some went straight into fellowship, others took a month off, some just enough time to move and then start.

 

[IM2GI]

Not sure the genius who decided GI boards should be in mid-November.

 

[FutureInternist]

Not sure the genius who decided GI boards should be in mid-November.

Just like every GI consult in the hospital, the GI boards can also wait a tad bit longer 😉

 

[IM2GI]

Just like every GI consult in the hospital, the GI boards can also wait a tad bit longer 😉

Tell that to my ED who calls at 3 AM for chronic abdominal pain, heme positive stool with a hemoglobin of 15 and normal vitals, etc...

 

[Raryn]

Tell that to my ED who calls at 3 AM for chronic abdominal pain, heme positive stool with a hemoglobin of 15 and normal vitals, etc...

At 3 am, there are only two possible answers to a GI consult:

The patient is too stable to scope
The patient is too unstable to scope

There is nothing in between.