Vacation Mandated to be taken on weekend?

[fitz0809]

Hi All,

Quick question. Our institution provides 21 vacation days, but mandates that 6 days be taken on weekends. This effectively reduces vacation days to 15- as taking vacation one weekend essentially guarantees cross coverage the weekend before and after. So you don't actually work less days whether you take those vacation days or not.

Now my understanding is that the program is not required to give 21 days vacation- but given that it does, I feel this is misleading to residents and applicants.

Are there specific ACGME rules dictating whether weekend days count as vacation?

Thanks!

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[backrow]

Hi All,

Quick question. Our institution provides 21 vacation days, but mandates that 6 days be taken on weekends. This effectively reduces vacation days to 15- as taking vacation one weekend essentially guarantees cross coverage the weekend before and after. So you don't actually work less days whether you take those vacation days or not.

Now my understanding is that the program is not required to give 21 days vacation- but given that it does, I feel this is misleading to residents and applicants.

Are there specific ACGME rules dictating whether weekend days count as vacation?

Thanks!

No, time away from the program (aka vacation) is an issue that is driven by the specialty boards and then applied as deemed fit by the program. Some Boards don't even say what the max is, others are quite strict (e.g. Peds)


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[NotAProgDirector]

This is standard. 21 days is 3 weeks of vacation. They expect you to take them in 7 or 14 day runs. Yes, some vacation days need to be used on the weekend.

It's a bummer that they don't try to block out the weekend before/after your vacation week so that you get a full 9 days off in a row, but that's their choice.

 

[bannie22]

I know programs that give a month off. Thats been the most days ive seen.

 

[LucidSplash]

We had 10 or 15 days vacation (business days in other worlds) depending on the year. Booking M-F and the scheduling chief would do their best, and was usually able, to make your weekends off flanking those days.

Personally I didn't like taking my 5 days of vacation flanked by weekends off because in order for the call schedule to work out so no one went over hours, you still had to work your allotted weekends that month. Our schedule was such that everyone works 2 weekends a month and the other two are so-called golden weekends. So you'd end up working a couple weekends in a row before or (usually) after vacation which was miserable to me. So I started taking midweek vacations like Wed-Tuesday or something like that. At first I had a scheduling chief protest until I showed them how it actually made the schedule easier than trying to figure out how to cover two weekends in a row while I was gone with the tradition way of taking vacation. Plus, flights are cheaper midweek. I didn't "lose" any time because I still got my other weekend off and usually avoiding working 2 in a row. Win. Hopefully I'll be able to continue this practice in my fellowship.

 

[kcm1984]

I feel scheduling at my program is quite generous. We work all 8 hour shifts and out of 28 day months we work as follows:

- HO2's work 19-20 shifts a month, 18 on vacation +1 backup shift
- HO3's work 18-19 shifts a month, 17 on vacation +1 backup shift
- Chief's work 17-18 shifts a month, 16 on vacation +1 backup shift

So we get 3 full weeks of vacation (not including 5 days at Xmas or NY), but only a 1 day shift reduction on our vacation months.

I still think it's pretty fair.


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[Perrotfish]

Hi All,

Quick question. Our institution provides 21 vacation days, but mandates that 6 days be taken on weekends. This effectively reduces vacation days to 15- as taking vacation one weekend essentially guarantees cross coverage the weekend before and after. So you don't actually work less days whether you take those vacation days or not.

Now my understanding is that the program is not required to give 21 days vacation- but given that it does, I feel this is misleading to residents and applicants.

Are there specific ACGME rules dictating whether weekend days count as vacation?

Thanks!

In my program senior residents were given one 96 hour holiday per year, either Christmas, Thanksgiving, or New Years Day.

I was given New years. I was, however, assigned a night shift on New Year's Eve. But I got the 'day' off.

I was also informed that those 96 hours were my 4 of my 5 days off for the 1 month block that I was starting. I had one additional day off in the following 24.

So the moral of the story is that they can do whatever they want to you.

 

[SXMMD]

In my program senior residents were given one 96 hour holiday per year, either Christmas, Thanksgiving, or New Years Day.

I was given New years. I was, however, assigned a night shift on New Year's Eve. But I got the 'day' off.

I was also informed that those 96 hours were my 4 of my 5 days off for the 1 month block that I was starting. I had one additional day off in the following 24.

So the moral of the story is that they can do whatever they want to you.

Your program sucks. Can I give them bad ratings on Yelp?

 

[CostcoCOM]

I feel scheduling at my program is quite generous. We work all 8 hour shifts and out of 28 day months we work as follows:

- HO2's work 19-20 shifts a month, 18 on vacation +1 backup shift
- HO3's work 18-19 shifts a month, 17 on vacation +1 backup shift
- Chief's work 17-18 shifts a month, 16 on vacation +1 backup shift

So we get 3 full weeks of vacation (not including 5 days at Xmas or NY), but only a 1 day shift reduction on our vacation months.

I still think it's pretty fair.


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8 hour shifts???, I would forfeit all of my vacation to be able to only work for 8 hours each day

 

[qwerty89]

Damn. In rads most programs allow you to take some (if not all) 21 days off individually and since you dont work weekends unless you are on call (which is frequent during R2/half of R3 years) those are all weekdays.

I.E. you can take just Monday off and give yourself a 3 day weekend pretty much whenever you want.

 

[Donald Juan]

I feel scheduling at my program is quite generous. We work all 8 hour shifts and out of 28 day months we work as follows:

- HO2's work 19-20 shifts a month, 18 on vacation +1 backup shift
- HO3's work 18-19 shifts a month, 17 on vacation +1 backup shift
- Chief's work 17-18 shifts a month, 16 on vacation +1 backup shift

So we get 3 full weeks of vacation (not including 5 days at Xmas or NY), but only a 1 day shift reduction on our vacation months.

I still think it's pretty fair.


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Jesus, 8 hour shifts, and you only work 19-20 shifts/month? That's amazing...I indeed hope you think it's fair.

 

[Lostin_space]

Hi All,

Quick question. Our institution provides 21 vacation days, but mandates that 6 days be taken on weekends. This effectively reduces vacation days to 15- as taking vacation one weekend essentially guarantees cross coverage the weekend before and after. So you don't actually work less days whether you take those vacation days or not.

Now my understanding is that the program is not required to give 21 days vacation- but given that it does, I feel this is misleading to residents and applicants.

Are there specific ACGME rules dictating whether weekend days count as vacation?

Thanks!

Well our program provides 15 vacation days, and before it provided 10! true story. So be grateful with your 21 days. We are not guaranteed weekends before/after vacation off either, although they try to make it work but does not always.