Vacation (or lack thereof)

[deleted390966]

Hi,
I'm curious about how taking vacation works. I would like to ask if you get vacation during and after residency... If so, how much time off do you have per year and is it paid or unpaid?

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[Dral]

For the most part, paid vacation, usually taken a week at a time. Three to four weeks a year is common.

If one runs their own practice, one could take about as much vacation as they wanted, as long as it works out for staff/overhead.

 

[Raryn]

Hi,
I'm curious about how taking vacation works. I would like to ask if you get vacation during and after residency... If so, how much time off do you have per year and is it paid or unpaid?

Varies significantly from program to program, but I believe the absolute minimum allowed by the ACGME is 2 weeks paid vacation and the maximum to graduate on time (at least for IM) is 4. At my program, we are only allowed to take it in blocks of a week at a time (though people interviewing for fellowship can choose to use up vacation days if they can work it out with the chief residents). Those blocks usually but not always end up being 9 days, because they finangle a golden weekend before and after. We can only take it during electives, clinical blocks, or other rotations that don't involve inpatient coverage, but if you put your requests in before the schedule comes out, 90%++ end up being granted (i.e. they just move your inpatient rotations around until you have a schedule that works and gets you your desired rotation).

The smaller the program though, the less convenient it becomes. Our FM program (which is ~1/3 the size of our IM program) basically assigns their people vacation. Our surgery program has a little bit flexibility, but counts the weekend after your M-F vacation as two of your days off (allowable technically but repugnant IMO) for that month, so any month you take vacation in you're otherwise working like a dog.

 

[JJMrK]

Agree with above, most places have 3-4 weeks off taken in 1 week blocks, often pre-assigned based on requests. Some places make you take the entire month at once and just don't schedule you for a rotation that block (more typical intern year).

 

[QofQuimica]

Some places make you take the entire month at once and just don't schedule you for a rotation that block.

That was how my program worked. The residents had the option to swap vacation weeks amongst ourselves, or you could just keep an entire month block of vacation if you preferred. You do continue to get paid during your vacation time. It's built into your residency stipend for the year.

As an (academic) attending, I don't have any specific set vacation times. Basically I am contracted to work a certain number of hours per month. If I wanted to, I could work two weeks straight and then take two weeks off for a vacation every month. But that would be pretty rough; I find myself getting a bit fried after working five straight days in a row, never mind 15-16 days in a row.

 

[drcrispmd]

this is program dependent. my program you could take up to 5 days in a month rotation and 2 days in a 2 week rotation. We had certain rotations that vacation was not allowed. we did not have to take it a week at a time. Long holiday weekend, you could take the friday before and extend it. we had to give 3 months notice of vacation days. in the spring the PD would ask for any planned vacation or important events so he could make the schedule rotations around it. then the chief would ask for weekend request before they would make the weekend call schedule.

Ask your cheifs what the policy is if you are already in a program. If you are applyig, you will need to wait to see where you end up. All vacation days in residency is paid vacation. after residency you can take as many days as you want. I took 2 months off before starting my new job. This of course was unpaid, so i had to plan accordingly to have enough money for bills and living expenses.