LOA-Parent Death

[streetcoat]

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I have been dealing with the unexpected death of my father for a week and my school has offered me a month off from 3rd year clinical rotations, which I am able to makeup during a flex block we have. My graduation date would not be affected. I wanted to see how this impacts my residency applications if this counts as an LOA, and whether this tanks my chances at matching. I would be returning next month. Am still trying to process everything since this is such a drastic life change for me.

 

[Rapsidy]

Take the LOA and the time to grieve. This will not affect your chance to match at all, and can be told as a story of overcoming hardship during match in interviews if it comes up. People take LOAs for many different reasons in medical school, the death of a parent is absolutely an understandable and acceptable reason for this.

Take care of yourself, and I’m so sorry for your loss.

 

[Dral]

I would say take it if you need it. I do not think it will affect anything since it sounds like everything will still be on track for you to finish on time.

I had a parent die just before the pandemic. I had a day off for the funeral but was back to work the next day. Just know that is something that can be expected when you are out in the working world. However, their death was not too unexpected. You are in a different situation where it was unexpected. I think it is totally reasonable for you to take the time to process if you are in fact afforded the time without it really affecting too much else as far as the timeline of your training goes.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

I would say take it if you need it. I do not think it will affect anything since it sounds like everything will still be on track for you to finish on time.

I had a parent die just before the pandemic. I had a day off for the funeral but was back to work the next day. Just know that is something that can be expected when you are out in the working world. However, their death was not too unexpected. You are in a different situation where it was unexpected. I think it is totally reasonable for you to take the time to process if you are in fact afforded the time without it really affecting too much else as far as the timeline of your training goes.

Honestly, this is a sign of a messed up workplace. When my grandmother who mostly raised me died, I got 3 days of bereavement leave and an extra couple days of PTO to grieve. Different career at the time, but docs are still human and we shouldn't normalize aspects of the profession that are inherently dehumanizing and cruel. There should always be someone available to cover you for emergencies as an employed physician, and if there isn't frankly it's not really on you.

 

[Dral]

Honestly, this is a sign of a messed up workplace. When my grandmother who mostly raised me died, I got 3 days of bereavement leave and an extra couple days of PTO to grieve. Different career at the time, but docs are still human and we shouldn't normalize aspects of the profession that are inherently dehumanizing and cruel. There should always be someone available to cover you for emergencies as an employed physician, and if there isn't frankly it's not really on you.

Yes, we do get one bereavement day at a time, but if I needed, my colleagues would cover for me for a month or even more if I needed it. I am the type of person who deals best with staying busy so I was fine with having my day off to attend services and then get back to it. There are certainly places that give just a day (or maybe not even that!) and that is all one might get. I agree, that's not right. The harsh reality is that a month is a lot of lost RVUs, and we live in a society in the US at least that values that more sometimes.

This topic has been discussed in the past on the forums. It's the extremes of 'surgery' work ethic 'get back to it and get cutting' mentality without any time off vs the 'I'm sad and need three months to process this' mentality. People should be given the choice. If someone wants to just move on and get back to it, fine. If someone needs more time off, they should be able to have it. The issues are when someone is forced to not be able to have any time off or if an employee abuses the amount of time they are given.

 

[streetcoat]

Thank you all for the words of encouragement and advice. It means a lot. Looking forward to starting back on rotations in a few weeks.