Vacation time...

[Firebird]

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This is kinda a follow-up from a topic in the Allopathic forum. I would have posted it there, but Kimberli would have just moved it...haha

Anyway, we were talking about vacation time during clerkships. The year beginning MS-III is the most busy, correct? Very little time for vacation, right? Well, how difficult would it be to schedule a couple days off say the last couple days of June to the 4th of July. That's always a family vacation time.

Also, during residency, do they let you choose your vacation period according to seniority, or does each resident get to just choose whenever he/she wants to be off?

 

[Stinky T]

During medical school, your vacation time would have to be scheduled during that time for you to go on your family trip.

With regards to internship/residency, the chief resident determines what the call schedule is like and he/she will try to accomodate your wishes -- but there are no guarantees.

If at all possible, try to use your vacation time later in the year. If you use your precious vacation time so early (June/July), you will probably regret it later.

 

[Winged Scapula]

For medical school the vacation time is usually set up ahead of time. As Stinky Tofu (hey - glad to see you're still alive!) notes, during residency vacation requests are submitted to the academic Chief Resident who will *try* to accomodate you. We get 3 weeks (everyone else in house gets 4 weeks PLUS personal days. We were required to sell our personal days because they will not be given.) and I've submitted a list - a list which meets the restrictions of no vacation during SICU rotations, during CT, or any rotation without another intern or PGY2. Hopefully I'll get what I've asked for but sometimes it comes down to who has the better "excuse" for a vacation if there are conflicting schedules and I would imagine if it were between me and someone more senior, they would win unless I had an awesome reason for wanting the time off.

Hope this helps (and yes I *might* have moved this had it been placed in the Allopathic forum). 😀

 

[AJM]

While you might be able to get that time off during your 3rd and 4th years of med school, it still is often based on the "luck of the draw". How and when schools give vacation to the clinical students vary greatly by the school. At my school, it is VERY easy to take off then... (I just took vacation the exact dates you're talking about!). At some other schools that I have friends at, they weren't able to get vacation when they wanted, even though they gave the schools their preferences.

Getting vacation time at the end of June/beginning of July is next to impossible at the vast majority of residency programs, mostly because new interns start at the end of June, and the residents "graduate" to the next year around July 1st. Most programs that I know of don't allow residents to take any vacation during July (and sometimes August), because everyone is still so new that they need all the help they can get. And as an intern, I highly doubt that you will be able to take vacation your 1st week of internship!

Sorry to be a downer, it's just that that particular time of year is usually the exact time that residency programs truly need all of their residents, because it's a time of such huge transition!

 

[Winged Scapula]

Originally posted by ajm:
•
Getting vacation time at the end of June/beginning of July is next to impossible at the vast majority of residency programs, mostly because new interns start at the end of June, and the residents "graduate" to the next year around July 1st. Most programs that I know of don't allow residents to take any vacation during July (and sometimes August), because everyone is still so new that they need all the help they can get. And as an intern, I highly doubt that you will be able to take vacation your 1st week of internship!

Sorry to be a downer, it's just that that particular time of year is usually the exact time that residency programs truly need all of their residents, because it's a time of such huge transition!•

This is true for us. We are not allowed to take ANY vacation during the first two months for the reasons given above. It is safer and to the intern's benefit. So those traditional family vacations will have to be missed at least during your intern and Chief resident years! 😀