The pain of no vacation

[buggs]

I'll be starting as an intern this summer and just received an email about requesting our vacaction for the following year. Some how in my mind I had believed that 3wks vacation meant 21 calendar days not the crappy 15 days I'll be taking for the next five years of my life. What a joke! The program I'm at provides awesome training but I feel like they were less than up front about their benefits. In fact the program page mentions nothing about vacation time. The "3wks" that I understood I would be getting came from the Freida webpage. The "contract" we were given at the time of interviews was several photo copied pages of the health insurance premiums and benefits. I feel stupid for not being more aware of the issues, but I'm also angry with them for screwing me over with only 2wks vacation for the next five years of my life.

PS I would only like to hear sympathetic posts, mostly telling me how wonderful I am and how much I got screwed. Thank you.

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[willow212]

I hear ya!

And to top it all off, you'll probably get those two weeks in the middle of January when no one else wants to be off

 

[southerndoc]

Ouch! That's rough!

What specialty are you going into? Is this a hospital-wide policy, or just your particular residency program? (Like how many days off do medicine, surgery, etc. residents get off?)

 

[beyond all hope]

Our program only gives 3 wks vacation, but we also get 6 full days off during Christmas or New Years. That wasn't in the contract, either. You may find some extra days here and there that weren't part of the original contract. Some services that work shifts (like ER) you can rearrange your schedule to get a week off in the middle of the month.

Vacations are possible.

 

[avendesora]

You know, my program has the same thing, but as it's IM, we have some outpatient months in which weekends are off. My understanding was that our vacation is during this, so 5 working days really can turn out to be 9 days. It might be better than you think.

Keep your eye on the prize!

 

[IndyXRT]

I feel your pain. My program has slightly more days, but has a nifty policy where if you take monday or friday off, then saturday and sunday are automatically deducted from your days off (love it!). I seriously considered taking several blocks of tues-thurs off, just to mess with them (even if I decided to be that sophomoric, though, we're required to take our days off in one week blocks, thus ensuring we must burn some weekends).

Oh - I almost forgot to mention that you're wonderful and you really got screwed.

 

[buggs]

I spoke with my program to clarify whether the 2wks is just for the intern year or all five. I was informed that it would be all five years. When I asked about the listed 3wks of vacation I was told that they used to have three weeks vacation but now that you get one day in seven off they reduced it to two weeks vacation. What kind of people are these? Are they next going to send me a bill for the time spent teaching me? What a joke!

 

[margaritaboy]

Dude, that is pretty raw. I feel for you man....

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Yea, you got screwed. I'm really glad that was a question I asked all the residents I met at interviews now.

 

[Voxel]

Johnny, you got ho-z'd.

 

[ny skindoc]

Its an abusive situation.I'd be willing to bet that in those hospital where housestaff is unionized they get more than 2 weeks vacation.

 

[Fabio]

Yeah, I found that most programs defined their vacation differently. Some say 2 weeks, but you also get 5 days or so around the holiday, or some interns get the last week in the year off because they start a week earlier than the other classes. Some programs will call this a total of 4 weeks vacation. It's not the clearest terminology, I agree.

Other programs give 2 2-week blocks. So, you get a lot of time at once, but have to go many months without a break. Conveniently for the program, these 2 vacations must be taken during the "easier" months. No extra holiday time, no week off at the end of the year.

I also wish that programs would set aside definite study time or at least give you days off to take Step 3.

Make sure your program updates their Freida information so that no one else gets screwed like you did.

Just out of curiousity . . . Willow212, why does no one want to be off in the middle of January?

 

[willow212]

Just out of curiousity . . . Willow212, why does no one want to be off in the middle of January?

No offense against January lovers. For me, it would just be annoying because everyone I would want to go on vacation with would be in school or working at around that time. Now that I think about, though, those might be the best two weeks to escape from the bitter cold where I'll be living

 

[freelancewriter]

If three weeks=15 days, then programs could do themselves a favor by listing "15 workdays per year." Obviously this is affecting morale before people even start their residency!

 

[LTbulldogs]

As long as I get off homecoming week...I'll be OK...I'd love to show off...who's the Dr?...I'm the Dr!!....

 

[afmsboy]

I don't know if you are at a certain program in MN but if you are the 15 days may still translate into three weeks. The 5 day blocks do not include sat/sun but this are part of the vacation at my prog. i.e when you take five days off you get the weekend days as well.

 

[afmsboy]

I don't know if you are at a certain program in MN but if you are the 15 days may still translate into three weeks. The 5 day blocks do not include sat/sun but this are part of the vacation at my prog. i.e when you take five days off you get the weekend days as well.

sp these are part of the vacation.

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
The odd thing is that once you actually start internship, a two-day weekend is going to look good to you and your 15 days will look like heaven. Scheduling them in January is not a bad idea either. You will have plenty of time to get away in 15 days. Remember, internship is why you came to medical school. There is nothing like being a "real" doctor.
njbmd

 

[The White Coat Investor]

There is nothing like being a "real" doctor.
njbmd

Except being a real doctor with a liveable schedule.