Residents In the Guard/Reserve

[DeadCactus]

Curious how drill works at other programs.

Do you even drill?
Is the program good about scheduling off or do you get scheduled like other residents and then trade for what you can get?
Is your unit good about letting you miss drill when you have to?
Do you count drill in work hour rules?

Do the various federal laws regarding drill time off even apply to us?

Thanks.

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[notdeadyet]

I'm National Guard, large state...

Do you even drill?

Oh yes. True in medical school, but particularly true once I became licensed and actually started delivering care. I also do my AT every other year.

Is the program good about scheduling off or do you get scheduled like other residents and then trade for what you can get?

Tough to say, as most of my residency was typically M-F (psych). For the off-service rotations, I gave them my scheduled drill dates and asked if they could schedule around. For most of residency, I just swapped any conflicting drill dates with co-residents.

Is your unit good about letting you miss drill when you have to?

Yep. As long as I give a heads up, it hasn't been an issue. I SUTA to a neighboring unit to drill then.

Do you count drill in work hour rules?

No. I would only count my hours towards hour rules if I were doing hands-on hospital/clinical care. Otherwise, I don't consider it adding towards the hour rule. That said, it's largely a non-issue for me (again, psych).

Do the various federal laws regarding drill time off even apply to us?

Don't know what that means.

Hope all's well with you, DC.

 

[DeadCactus]

For the last question, federal law puts a lot of the burden on the employer. They're required to give you time off for military service, they can't force you to use vacation time to meet military obligations, etc. I haven't had any issues; like you my unit and residency have both been cooperative. I've always wondered though, how much of the normal protection applies to us. A residency (as the employer) being forced to give you 1 weekend and 2 weeks per year to drill and not have any of it cut into your normal vacation time or days off sounds crazy. I don't think marching down that road would benefit anyone (resident, program, or military) but I'm curious...

 

[notdeadyet]

For the last question, federal law puts a lot of the burden on the employer. They're required to give you time off for military service, they can't force you to use vacation time to meet military obligations, etc. ... I've always wondered though, how much of the normal protection applies to us.

Ah, gotcha.

The issue with residency is that it's a training program in addition to an employer. With military duty, they have to give you the time off, but they can also require that you make it up in order to ensure that you have met the same training requirements as your colleagues (x days doing this, y days doing that).

Most academic and/or larger programs have specific policies about this that you sometimes have to dig to find. At mine, we have up to 30 days of "military leave" annually (other places I've heard 14 days). That said, there is also the caveat that it is dependent on the approval of your program director.

A residency (as the employer) being forced to give you 1 weekend and 2 weeks per year to drill and not have any of it cut into your normal vacation time or days off sounds crazy. I don't think marching down that road would benefit anyone (resident, program, or military) but I'm curious...

Agreed. A program could theoretically say that you can take the time off and then tag it on at the end. Programs do that for other reasons all the time (maternity comes to mind).

 

[nvdoc]

Former ASR...Third State Medical Detachment. I'm a fellow now in a very busy specialty (Pulm/CC), and while I haven't been given additional time for Drill etc. I'm sure they would. My current CO is amazing and hugely supportive of the docs with SUTA etc. We're really trying to make use of the flexi-training/ equivalent training (CME / Lectures etc.). We have a pretty diverse unit with Medical Students, Residents , a Fellow (me) and attendings. As far as I know every single Academic Medical Center has a policy on military leave, my residency institution they had to give at least 14 days for AT if I recall.