Residency Start Date Flexibility

[14022]

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I was under the impression that residency start date is July 1st. I figured that there would be 2-3 days of orientation before that. I have heard from recent graduates that their start dates are as early as June 15th. I am getting married in a year and we scheduled the date for June 10th. We were planning on taking a honeymoon for 7 days from the 12th - 19th. Is the start date of orientation mandatory? My honeymoon will be planned and paid for by the time I find out where I match. How bad is it going to be if I am not there at the start of orientation? Am I going to have to come back early from my honeymoon? Also, when I interview, am I going to have to lie about my wedding date and honeymoon so they don't know ahead of time that I will be on vacation when their orientation begins?

 

[doc05]

you will need to be present for orientation. the exception would be any ACLS/ATLS courses that you could take beforehand (though at your own expense). unfortunately, while residencies pretty much all start on july 1st, orientation start dates may vary from june 10-20th or later.

I'd recomend you try to change the wedding date if you can (of course that's not always possible).

 

[14022]

Well I cannot change my wedding date, so that is not an option.

If I am certified in ACLS prior to residency, would it be OK to miss the first few days? There is an elective at our school offered to fourth years at the end of the year that offers certification in BLS/ACLS.

I wish I knew this in the beginning. Before I set the date, I made it a point to ask our dean when residencies start because I was planning on getting married mid-June, and he didn't mention anything about orientation starting 2-3 weeks before July 1st.

 

[AJM]

Most internships start earlier than July 1st. The majority that I've heard of have start dates of June 20-25. Orientation is usually the week before that. So your program will likely expect you to be present for orientation anywhere from June 10-20.

I second doc05's suggestion that you try to see if you can move your wedding date earlier if possible. It's still early enough that it might not be a problem.

If you can't change your wedding date, then you will have to see if your program will work with you. Some programs may let you take one of your vacations for the first 1-2 weeks, and have you do orientation towards the end of your vacation. The downside to that is that you won't meet your classmates until later on, and you effectively lose a vacation. Another option is that you wait until later in the year to take your honeymoon and do orientation with everyone else. A third option is to see if the program will let you do most of the orientation stuff before your wedding (ie get your ID, passwords, ACLS, OSHA/needle safety training, occupational health, etc.)

 

[Harrie]

Sometimes its not just orientation either. We have two days of orientation (without ACLS/ATLS) and then start working on June 23. You may just have to cut the honeymoon short.

 

[VentdependenT]

Schedule vacation (which most programs will not let you do during the first month...at least I think) or beg for some easy elective where they wont miss you when you are gone. Hint hint, wink wink.

 

[jamie]

Well I cannot change my wedding date, so that is not an option.

If I am certified in ACLS prior to residency, would it be OK to miss the first few days? There is an elective at our school offered to fourth years at the end of the year that offers certification in BLS/ACLS.

I wish I knew this in the beginning. Before I set the date, I made it a point to ask our dean when residencies start because I was planning on getting married mid-June, and he didn't mention anything about orientation starting 2-3 weeks before July 1st.

That goes to show how helpful deans are. I think some programs start in the last week or so of June so that the outgoing intern class has a week off before coming back as PGY-2s.

If you do peds, you'll probably have to get certified in PALS and/or neonatal resuscitation before you start -- I don't know how easy that is to get done on your own (it isn't offered as often as ACLS). I highly doubt that it would come up in your interview about whether or not you would miss orientation, unless you mention your wedding date. Unfortunately, I agree that you may have to consider postponing your honeymoon for a while (which plenty of people do). But, if you are planning to go somewhere warm, wouldn't it be much more fun to go in January than June? You could take a short, 3-4 trip somewhere right after the wedding, too. Not the ideal, but you'll still be married in the end.

 

[Swaydaa]

I had something similar to your situation, and they said tough luck. We start with orientation from June 16th to the 23rd and officially start on on the 24th.

 

[Smurfette]

That goes to show how helpful deans are. I think some programs start in the last week or so of June so that the outgoing intern class has a week off before coming back as PGY-2s.

If you do peds, you'll probably have to get certified in PALS and/or neonatal resuscitation before you start -- I don't know how easy that is to get done on your own (it isn't offered as often as ACLS). I highly doubt that it would come up in your interview about whether or not you would miss orientation, unless you mention your wedding date. Unfortunately, I agree that you may have to consider postponing your honeymoon for a while (which plenty of people do). But, if you are planning to go somewhere warm, wouldn't it be much more fun to go in January than June? You could take a short, 3-4 trip somewhere right after the wedding, too. Not the ideal, but you'll still be married in the end.

It also is probably NOT a good thing to ask about during your interviews...

 

[14022]

Well this really pisses me off. I got engaged frickin 18 months before the wedding just to ensure that I would have the freedom to schedule things according to my limited schedule. I could have easily scheduled my wedding for June 3rd too, but my fiance wanted June 10. She is not going to be too happy about cutting the honeymoon short either. Oh well, I guess I am just going to have to reassure her that I am going into Peds and going to be rich. Oh crap, thats not true either!

 

[PsychFuture]

Well this really pisses me off. I got engaged frickin 18 months before the wedding just to ensure that I would have the freedom to schedule things according to my limited schedule. I could have easily scheduled my wedding for June 3rd too, but my fiance wanted June 10. She is not going to be too happy about cutting the honeymoon short either. Oh well, I guess I am just going to have to reassure her that I am going into Peds and going to be rich. Oh crap, thats not true either!

You could always just reschedule the honeymoon.

 

[turtle md]

Well this really pisses me off. I got engaged frickin 18 months before the wedding just to ensure that I would have the freedom to schedule things according to my limited schedule. I could have easily scheduled my wedding for June 3rd too, but my fiance wanted June 10. She is not going to be too happy about cutting the honeymoon short either. Oh well, I guess I am just going to have to reassure her that I am going into Peds and going to be rich. Oh crap, thats not true either!

Don't give up all hope yet. I was scheduled to go on a cruise during the 2nd week of June. I wrote my program, and they said it would not be a problem for me to show up a little late. They are arranging it by letting me do my PALS and ACLS during my first month rotation, which they arranged as an easier month. So I get to basically show up a week late. One of my colleagues is in a similiar situation as you will be. He will be on his honeymoon during the first week of orientation. He solved this by taking the PALS and ACLS courses early.

Don't completely freak out yet. Some programs are super pro-resident and will work with you. I even asked programs their start dates during interviews.

Hope this helps...