Third year pregnancies

[WhoisJohnGalt]

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We have recently had an issue come up with a resident at my program getting pregnant during her second year and having to completely change her schedule around to basically do fourth year next year because our program director says that third year (at my program, the outpatient year) can't be interrupted according to ACGME guidelines. It seems crazy to me that she's having to jump through so many hoops-- particularly since she was planning on fast-tracking into C/A, so this essentially adds a year to her residency training. Has anyone else had this come up at their program? Are third year pregnancies strictly "forbidden" everywhere?

 

[billypilgrim37]

No. That sounds remarkably fishy.

 

[Doc Samson]

Agree that the rationale provided is not right, but the net result is likely unavoidable. You need to complete 3 years of training to fast track into child not 3 years minus a 3 month leave.

 

[Energy NOS]

Just this past year. We had two different PGY3s take leave for pregnancy. One did also fast track into child, but I believe her maternity leave had to limited to between 6 and 8 weeks in order to meet requirements to fast track.

 

[kcrd]

I had a baby 7 months into my outpatient 12 months. We had originally thought I would be able to just do 5 months of outpatient after I returned from leave, but when we checked with the rrc we were told I would need the continuous 12 months, so I ended up doing 19+ full time outpatient months. This worked out well for me, because I really enjoyed out clinic. I think if the leave was only about 1 month you could possibly argue that the experience is still continuous, but anything longer than that does not really meet the requirement.

 

[Manicsleep]

What is considered 12 continuous months?
Your residency director can be creative with that. Allow the resident to come in after 4 weeks or so and gradually increase from 1 or 2 clinics a week. Can those patients be telepsychiatry? How about phone appointments?

Its all how you present it. Say that it will be a selling point to future residents as everyone wants to learn telepsychiatry.
Be a regional leader in telepsychiatry. Get a grant from the APA. Serve the underserved. Blah blah blah. Either way, the resident gets to work but in a more relaxed way.