time off in residency

[btlwhulka]

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In general (lets say first year internal residency), how much time off does a resident get per year? By this, I mean, do you get a week off, two weeks off? Do residents have time that can be called vacation, or do they continually live in rotations throughout the years of residency?

 

[MD'05]

In general (lets say first year internal residency), how much time off does a resident get per year? By this, I mean, do you get a week off, two weeks off? Do residents have time that can be called vacation, or do they continually live in rotations throughout the years of residency?

On average, most IM programs offer 4 weeks of vacation / conference time. The problem is that certain rotations will restrict your ability to take time off. This is program dependent. So, you end up taking one day here and one day there to achieve a total of 4 weeks of vacation / conference time.

 

[beriberi]

Uh....as far as I know (from my own experiences as a resident and those of my med school classmates), no program has "a day off here and a day off there." You have four scheduled weeks of vacation, maybe as four one week blocks, two two week blocks or some variant. Sometimes one week is for reading, meaning you are off but must be able to cover sick call. You certainly cannot take time off whenever you like, it is typically placed on the master schedule for the year.

Your non-medical friends will tell you how lucky you are to have four full weeks off when normal people only get two. I remind them that normal people get 52 weekends a year and at least 10 holidays, which is about 100 more days off than my four weeks.

 

[Blade28]

They'll complete a master schedule before the start of each year. We get 3 weeks off, and they have to be taken separately (can't take 3 consecutive weeks off). The ACGME/surgery RRC rules also state we're supposed to average one day off every 7.

 

[atsai3]

Uh....as far as I know (from my own experiences as a resident and those of my med school classmates), no program has "a day off here and a day off there." You have four scheduled weeks of vacation, maybe as four one week blocks, two two week blocks or some variant. Sometimes one week is for reading, meaning you are off but must be able to cover sick call. You certainly cannot take time off whenever you like, it is typically placed on the master schedule for the year.

Your non-medical friends will tell you how lucky you are to have four full weeks off when normal people only get two. I remind them that normal people get 52 weekends a year and at least 10 holidays, which is about 100 more days off than my four weeks.

Anesthesiology programs are more flexible with timing of vacation. The program at my school permits the residents to choose "a day off here and a day off there".

I have never heard of an internal medicine or surgery residency program permitting such things. Most programs force you to take your vacation time in a single 2-week block.

 

[DOtobe]

I'm in FP, and we get three weeks off. We can't take them for 3 consecutive weeks, and one of our three weeks is either the week of Christmas or the week of New Year's. The other two weeks we can only take during certain rotations. We also get three personal days. There isn't such thing as "a day off here and there," unless you are on an outpatient rotation that has no rounding on the weekends, or if you are on an EM rotation that is more shift work.

 

[MD'05]

Uh....as far as I know (from my own experiences as a resident and those of my med school classmates), no program has "a day off here and a day off there." You have four scheduled weeks of vacation, maybe as four one week blocks, two two week blocks or some variant. Sometimes one week is for reading, meaning you are off but must be able to cover sick call. You certainly cannot take time off whenever you like, it is typically placed on the master schedule for the year.

Your non-medical friends will tell you how lucky you are to have four full weeks off when normal people only get two. I remind them that normal people get 52 weekends a year and at least 10 holidays, which is about 100 more days off than my four weeks.

You must be at a wonderful program then. There is no way I will be able to use all of my vacation time unless I take a day here or there.

 

[Smurfette]

Surgery....four weeks vacation. Must be taken as separate one week blocks throughout the year. No clause allowing everyone days off for Xmas or New Years...chiefs get first pick of vacation weeks, and so forth by seniority.

 

[NinerNiner999]

EM, 5 weeks off - 2 two-week blocks and 1 one-week block over either Christmas or new year's (first choice always given). 8-14 days off per month (conference mandatory on off-days). Total of around 90-100 days off per year. Then, attending schedule...

 

[MD'05]

EM, 5 weeks off - 2 two-week blocks and 1 one-week block over either Christmas or new year's (first choice always given). 8-14 days off per month (conference mandatory on off-days). Total of around 90-100 days off per year. Then, attending schedule...

OMG. You guys can take 2 week blocks of vacation?? No wonder EM is so competitive. I am so screwed.

 

[Blade28]

Damn that's nice. I have a week off in October, February and May...no time off during Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's. 🙁

 

[Winged Scapula]

3 weeks off; must be taken in separate 1 week blocks. Senior residents get first choice but are flexible if a junior has something special planned. Chiefs get a week of conference time (but have to attend a conference for it). Usually 4 days off either before Christmas, over Christmas or New Years.

No days off here and there except 1 weekend per month.

 

[TheThroat]

3 weeks vacation, 5 days off around New Years/Christmas, the seniors get the major 3-day holidays (, July 4th, Labor Day, T-Giving, MLK, etc). One conference in your third year (3 days off), and then any conference that you present a paper/poster at (2-3 days off).

 

[peptidoglycan]

Internal medicine:
4 weeks off, can be taken in 1-2 week blocks anytime. A week starts on Friday and ends the next Monday, so ends up being 9 days long. Also 7 days off at Christmas or New Years (by individual choice). We also have several months during the year when we have full weekends off the whole month (though we could be on jeopardy call during that time). Pretty sweet.

 

[tlew12778]

Great question bc I was wondering about this too.

My fiance is in his intern year in surgery. He has 4 weeks. They told him flat out that he needed to take all 4 weeks in August and not come in for the month of August basically. He is supposed to use this time to prepare for some test he has to take. Since we are still in town, the hospital keeps calling him to assist in surgeries (like be the 4th person for an aneurysm or even do rounds when the sr surgeons are lazy). This weekend he was on call for 4 days straight. Is this normal? I mean, it doesn't really seem like "vacation" time to me.

We live in Italy and he asked me if they do this in the US as well. I didn't know how to answer him. He's considering switching into a residency in the US as Italy will recognise it (this way he will be qualified in both countries).

 

[Larry Renal]

Are hospitals flexible as to requesting when you get your weeks off? ie: for a wedding or honeymoon etc? My fiance will be at a different hospital and we were hoping to get the time off together and squeeze a wedding in. Is there switching between residents? I realize it must vary from place to place, but in general is it possible? THANKS

Lar

 

[atsai3]

Are hospitals flexible as to requesting when you get your weeks off? ie: for a wedding or honeymoon etc? My fiance will be at a different hospital and we were hoping to get the time off together and squeeze a wedding in. Is there switching between residents? I realize it must vary from place to place, but in general is it possible? THANKS

Lar

In general, it is possible. Totally depends on your team. As long as you can find someone willing to switch off with you, you should be fine.

-AT.

 

[SmittySC]

Family Medicine

At my program, we get 30 days of PTO (paid time off) which includes 7 holidays and your birthday if you choose to take it. We can use it whenever we want with a 1 week max. We can take a day "here or there." Besides these days off, our program is set up so that interns average 2 weekends off per month. It is even better for 2nd and 3rd years. Any days we don't use over the 3 years get banked and we get paid for them when we graduate at our third year salary rate.

 

[Adam12]

3 weeks off; must be taken in separate 1 week blocks. Senior residents get first choice but are flexible if a junior has something special planned. Chiefs get a week of conference time (but have to attend a conference for it). Usually 4 days off either before Christmas, over Christmas or New Years.

No days off here and there except 1 weekend per month.

What exactly do you mean by "you have to attend a conference"? Are there some programs that allow conference time but then you can just take that extra week as vacation (on the DL ofcourse...)???

 

[Winged Scapula]

What exactly do you mean by "you have to attend a conference"? Are there some programs that allow conference time but then you can just take that extra week as vacation (on the DL ofcourse...)???

Meaning that if you don't attend a conference (which has to be an approved conference and with receipts for expenses given to the Program Coordinator) you don't get that week off. So you can't use that week for extra vacation time, etc.

There may be some other programs which allow you to use conference time for other uses, but I am not aware of them.

 

[ivan lewis]

Believe it or not...
Surg residency
4 weeks off (your choice of 2 2weeks or 1 2week and 2 1 weeks) plus 4 days off during Christmas or New Year's

 

[pinkeclipse]

This is bad news for me b/c I was planning on getting married during residency, but by the looks of things, there's no time for this to happen -- in terms of planning it, having it, and going on a honeymoon-- esp. with taking one week at a time!

 

[TheThroat]

This is bad news for me b/c I was planning on getting married during residency, but by the looks of things, there's no time for this to happen -- in terms of planning it, having it, and going on a honeymoon-- esp. with taking one week at a time!

You can't say that you can't get married during residency! People do it all the time. You plan the wedding while in residency, then use the week off for a honeymoon.

 

[AznTrojan]

prelim IM intern here at in miami.. 😀

i get 4 straight weeks off.. in my case.. i have pretty much all of november off.. so i get to go home for thanksgiving

add to the fact i have 2 blocks of nightfloat (each block is 2 weeks on... 2 weeks off).. i have total of 8 weeks off during internship 😉

 

[TheThroat]

prelim IM intern here at in miami.. 😀

i get 4 straight weeks off.. in my case.. i have pretty much all of november off.. so i get to go home for thanksgiving

add to the fact i have 2 blocks of nightfloat (each block is 2 weeks on... 2 weeks off).. i have total of 8 weeks off during internship 😉

That is some serious time off right there. I would say that I picked the wrong residency, but if I did IM at Miami, then I wouldn't be doing oto, which would suck.

 

[AznTrojan]

only prelims have to do night float.. 😎

i'm just happy i don't have to do outpatient clinic 😀

That is some serious time off right there. I would say that I picked the wrong residency, but if I did IM at Miami, then I wouldn't be doing oto, which would suck.

 

[yaah]

only prelims have to do night float.. 😎

i'm just happy i don't have to do outpatient clinic 😀

Pathologists don't have to do either. 🙂

 

[justcurious09]

Check out FRIEDA:
http://www.ama-assn.org/vapp/freida/srch/

And make sure you hit the "search plus" button.

 

[pinkeclipse]

You can't say that you can't get married during residency! People do it all the time. You plan the wedding while in residency, then use the week off for a honeymoon.

I just figured that planning a wedding is so time consuming and with little time off in residency, it would be hard to plan a wedding well.