Quick question about vacation (don't upvote)

[Lost in Translation]

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Any current MDs can talk about vacation days? I know they vary specialty to specialty, but in general how many do you get a year? Are they choosable/requestable or are they assigned (I know some residents like to trade off days–not sure about vacation days, unless those are one in the same–especially during family holidays)? Is it possible to bank vacation days or do you need to use them for that year or else they're gone, is my biggest concern?

 

[Mad Jack]

Most groups give you a set number of days per year. Some groups let you bank, others don't. Some hospitals let you bank, others don't. My hospital allowed a maximum of two years worth of PTO to accumulate at a rate of 8-10 hours per two week pay period. This was pooled PTO, however, so it also covered your sick time and other leave. It's also been reduced over time- recently they dropped it to 1.5x annual, and now it's dropping to 1x annual as of 2017. That all really sucks, as the old policies let me do crazy things like take a two month vacation in Europe after banking three years of PTO. Policies were the same for any physician employed directly by the hospital as they were for non-physicians. Basically, working for a health care conglomerate can result in some painful vacation policies, particularly when you factor in not being able to take vacation when you want due to staffing issues and the like- you might only be able to swing two weeks in a row max due to staffing problems if you don't have a large department.

Most physicians get around 3-4 weeks of vacation per year. The historical average for some fields has been higher- anesthesia used to typically offer 6-8 weeks/yr, while radiology used to offer 8-12 weeks/year, but times are changing and those fields are getting hit pretty hard, with commensurate shortening of vacations.

If you're looking for a job with chunks of time off, the 2 week on/2 week off hospitalist gig is a thing that exists. Other options include doing locums, which are three months in length, typically, and allow one to take a break between assignments. Finally, many jobs allow one to take a sabbatical at some point, which allows one to take an extended leave of absence (usually unpaid) for self-growth or other reasons. Other methods that allow for flexibility are job sharing (some places allow two hospitalists to split one job, which nets you half the pay but gives you a 1 week on/3 weeks off schedule) and part-time work (the so-called mommy track that many jobs offer for parents or older partners).

 

[Lost in Translation]

That all really sucks, as the old policies let me do crazy things like take a two month vacation in Europe after banking three years of PTO

**** that's exactly what I wanted to do (replace Europe with Asia). So you're telling me it might not be possible anymore by the time I'm an MD?

 

[Mad Jack]

Fuuuuuhhhhhhhhhkkkkkkkk that's exactly what I wanted to do (replace Europe with Asia). So you're telling me it might not be possible anymore by the time I'm an MD?

Like I said, there's ways to do it, but most jobs won't let you take massive blocks off in time unless you're doing locums, on a sabbatical, or something similar. Longest you can snag normally is a couple weeks here and there. You can try doing such a thing between jobs or w/e though. Might also be able to get away with it if you've got a really big group that allows you to accumulate a lot of time and is big enough to take the hit of one guy being gone for a while.

 

[Im76at711]

Just so you know, when people say (please don't upvote),

1) nobody is.going to upvote
2) we know your incentive and it doesn't work. It actually usually has the opposite effect (Hence the only one response on the thread)
3) this isn't premeddit you can't upvote here

Good try though. Next time maybe you can be a little less conspicuous about it

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

I don't reddit. What's an upvote? Is it the same as a like?

 

[wheatthinners]

.

 

[Mad Jack]

Based on your knowledge and experience, do you think Emergency Medicine is one of the fields that is more amenable to vacation times?

EM is kind of a weird field. You work less hours, on average, but the need to cover every shift 24/7 means that you can never be too short staffed without calling in a locum. On the other hand, you can more easily move all of your shifts to one time of the month to take a vacation without actually taking a vacation (such as, if you have 12 required shifts a month, doing them all back-to-back at the start of one month then doing your next 12 back-to-back at the end of the next). You need to keep in mind that you're working with other physicians, and if you're on vacation, that means one of them can't be, so you have to learn to work together with the group to find something that works. The bigger the group, the easier it is to fill holes, so bigger groups, especially bigger private groups, tend to be far more amenable to such things.

Really, it's hard to generalize though. Vacation is such a situational thing that varies from job to job, so YMMV depending on location, competitiveness, practice size, practice environment, etc.

 

[Mad Jack]

I don't reddit. What's an upvote? Is it the same as a like?

Upvotes are like likes that also bump a post higher on the front page, allowing you to banish **** posts while keeping good posts high on the list.

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Upvotes are like likes that also bump a post higher on the front page, allowing you to banish **** posts while keeping good posts high on the list.

So theoretically, an insightful post that's unpopular could get down voted to oblivion. Doesn't sound like a good system.

 

[Mad Jack]

So theoretically, an insightful post that's unpopular could get down voted to oblivion. Doesn't sound like a good system.

Usually they don't though. The only way a good post gets downvoted to oblivion is if your site is full of terrible people, in which case, why are you there anyway?

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Usually they don't though. The only way a good post gets downloaded to oblivion is if your site is full of terrible people, in which case, why are you there anyway?

Lol, good point.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Usually they don't though. The only way a good post gets downvoted to oblivion is if your site is full of terrible people, in which case, why are you there anyway?

B-but that's what Reddit is.

 

[JustAPhD]

Upvotes are like likes that also bump a post higher on the front page, allowing you to banish **** posts while keeping good posts high on the list.

I completely understand how Reddit works and yet I'm still confused as to how this relates to SDN.

Edit: (Because I don't want to bump the thread) I get that, I guess I just don't get why OP used "upvote" in the title.

 

[Mad Jack]

I completely understand how Reddit works and yet I'm still confused as to how this relates to SDN.

Because he used "upvote" in the title and it confused people, so I was explaining what, exactly, an upvote was and how it worked.

B-but that's what Reddit is.

Reddit is being a terrible person for people that are absolutely amateurs at being terrible people. It's the brightest dark corner of the web, and some corners are so bright they could actually be considered "good."

 

[IlDestriero]

Every group is going to be different. At my place the surgeons seem to take about 4 weeks off on average, but they can take more or less as long as things are covered. From what I've picked up over the years, I don't think they have any set amount in their contracts, but they get paid the more they operate, so there's incentive to cut.
Anesthesia takes 6-7 weeks off, which is in our contract. We can also buy more time, as long as it's available. We can roll over some vaca time for 1 year.
We don't get set "sick time" and it doesn't come out of our vacation, but if someone called out excessively, there would be follow up. It doesn't seem to get abused. 6-10 weeks seems the norm in anesthesia from what I've heard interviewing and from my colleagues in PP and academia. I don't have many friends in anesthesia management company groups, so I can't say what they offer. We also have some supplemental non clinical time available for people in national committees, medical missions, etc. so you don't have to deplete all your vacation time to participate in these activities.


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Il Destriero