I think that we're blurring the technical terms of "days off" and true "vacation".
I'm talking strictly vacation block, where you could book a ticket in advance, fly home, road trip, PLAN AHEAD etc. While we do get "days off", our departmental policy is no block longer than 5 days off in a row, regardless of vacation or schedule.
So for our program it is a moot point, 5 days total, and if you can trade out with others you may get the weekend added (but still work your NL shifts, which end up not being worth it in the end).
I'm not bit%%ing about EM or our residency, I love it
, but seeing your family 1x a year for 3 days (1 day flight each way), and then choosing wife/trip, visit friends/trip, wifes family/trip, fix the house/no trip etc for your other 5 days (if you get them, which I'm apparently not this year), really pisses you off.
(One thing that I find is that all specialties work hard, long hours, and at least at our hospital surgeons (esp ortho), and Ob/Gyn work harder longer hours than most and should get 10 weeks vacation in my book
) )
Everyone works hard, I'm just strictly talking about being able to PLAN vacation (in the technical sense of the phrase)