Residents should not plan on taking vacation at the time of the in-training exam, during the time of the Annual Program Evaluation (Residency Retreat), or during the week of the chief residents’ graduation dinner and the annual Resident Research Symposium. At a minimum, rotation directors and the PD should be notified no less than 2 weeks before the rotation starts. All time off must be recorded in MedHub. So-called “terminal leave,” vacation as the final week of residency, will be considered on an individual basis for residents who will be pursuing a fellowship. A resident who is taking terminal leave should not take an additional week of vacation during the same rotation block. Time off for fellowship/job interviews Residents are not permitted to take vacation in any quarter in which they will be gone for more than five days due to interviews. Residents must report the number of days they will be taking off to the program director. To avoid patient care coverage issues, PGY2’s should try not take vacation when a resident on the same rotation is interviewing.
14. Resident Work Hours and Call The Department of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery is committed to following the current ACGME policies on duty hours. See GME handbook for policy. The resident call schedule will be determined by the chief residents. First call is shared among junior and senior residents; the second call is by the chief resident, or in the event of the chief resident’s absence, by the most senior resident on the service. Third call is staffed by a faculty member. Recognizing the individual resident circumstances and needs and acknowledging the autonomy of the specific sites within the residency program, it is understood that the residents will be allowed to determine their own call schedule, to the extent that this does not create any undue hardship for any individual resident and it follows the above guidelines. As much as possible, no resident should be on call 2 weekends in a row. Resident work hours are monitored on a weekly basis and any potential issues are addressed immediately. The following guidelines were adopted for the 2020-2021 Academic Year to address duty hour concerns: All Residents: • All day residents should leave the hospital by 9 pm weekdays. May voluntarily elect to stay (if working within 80 hours, 1 in 7 days off guidelines): – to continue to provide care to a single severely ill or unstable patient – humanistic attention to the needs of a patient or family – to attend unique educational events • The night float resident should actively take over day residents’ work (e.g., in the OR) to allow them to leave by 9 pm, if there are no active consults. • Attending or fellow to dictate cases when finishing after 9 pm. Junior Residents • Night float resident will work every other Friday night.
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