Resident Time Away Policy
Vacation, CME (time and money) and Leave
Updated 6/2018
General requests for vacation for the upcoming academic year are taken into consideration when building the rotation block schedule. Vacation requests must be made at least 3 months in advance. Residents can only take vacation during specific rotations (listed below). Vacations need to take into account the needs of the clinic patient care team. Vacation requests may be subject to additional rules for a specific clinic. Vacations are decided upon by the faculty coordinator and administrative coordinator of the master schedule for residents.
Please note: All residents are required to take the ABFM in-training exam, which is typically held during the last week of October. Vacation options may be reduced during that time. For those on an international elective, a paper-based exam will be taken when you return but will not officially count for the ABFM.
Vacationable rotations:
• R1: Clinic, Derm/Ortho, ED, Outpatient Peds [except for Peds ED nights], Outpatient portion of Surgery block
• R2: Outpatient Surgery, Geriatrics, Clinic, Adolescent, Outpatient Pediatrics, Gynecology, Elective
• R3: Dermatology, Elective, Orthopedics, Neurology, Gynecology, Clinic
Floating holidays:
Residents get a floating holiday if they work one of the Swedish designated holidays as defined in the SMC Designated Holidays policy. The floating holiday can be taken before or after the holiday worked. You cannot combine more than 2 floating holidays in a single block.
Any vacation days less than a full week (for seniors) or floating holidays should preferentially be requested 3 months in advance. If requested less than 3 months prior to the date, the schedulers may not be able to accommodate your request. Vacation days cannot carry over from one academic year to the next.
Swedish holidays:
New Year's Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day
[Martin Luther King, Jr., Day; Columbus Day, Veterans Day are not Swedish holidays]
Class-specific rules:
INTERNS: R1s should request their vacation in 5 business day increments prior to starting their intern year. No dates can be guaranteed but schedulers will work to honor as many requests as possible.
SENIORS: R2s and R3s must request 2 of 3 of their vacation weeks in 5 day increments. The last week can be broken up into shorter segments. All vacations must take the needs of the clinic team into account.
R3s: R3s may request up to 3 days away from the residency for job interviews. These days need to be approved in advance by the Program Director and will not count against vacation.
Vacations longer than 5 business days must be approved with the associate director of the curriculum and program director and are generally not allowed. You cannot combine a week of CME and a week of vacation in the same block.
American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) requirements
Vacation, Illness, and Other Short-Term Absences Residents are expected to perform their duties as resident physicians for a minimum period of eleven months each calendar year. Therefore, absence from the program for vacation, illness, personal business, leave, etc., must not exceed a combined total of one (1) month per academic year. The ABFM defines one month as 21 working days or 30 calendar days.
Vacation periods may not accumulate from one year to another, and therefore must be used in academic year in which they were earned. No two vacation periods may be concurrent (e.g., last month of the R-2 year and first month of the R-3 year in sequence) and a resident does not have the option of reducing the total time required for residency (36 calendar months) by relinquishing vacation time.
Time away from the residency program for educational purposes, such as workshops or continuing medical education activities, are not counted in the general limitation on absences but should not exceed 5 days annually.
Continuing Medical Education
One of the objectives of the residency is to help residents develop an approach to life-long learning that will serve the needs of a changing specialty. Time for continuing medical education is provided as a method of exploring this objective. CME days away from the residency should be requested at least 3 months in advance. If requested less than 3 months in advance, requests will be granted if the schedulers are able to accommodate the overall schedule and clinic needs.
Continuing medical education time and money is given to residents as outlined in the resident contract, with the following time and money allowed
• R1 3 days, no money
• R2 5 days, $500
• R3 5 days, $750
CME Money and Reimbursement
All CME and associated travel (including airfare, hotel, rental car, registration, etc) will need to be pre-approved. See SMC Travel and CME Pre-approval policy on residency website for further details. It can take 1-2 weeks to obtain approval so please allow enough time for this prior to booking your travel or registering for your meeting. SMC will not pay any travel fees until the approval process is complete. Upon return, meals, hotel, registration, airfare, ground transportation, and incidentals are reimbursable with detailed receipts, up to the limit of your contracted CME funds. See SMC Travel and Expense Policy for further details regarding reimbursement.
CME allowances can be used for the following items: medical education conference registration and travel; medical books, journals, and subscriptions; medical apps and software for smartphones, tablets, and computers. CME allowances cannot be used for hardware purchases such as cell phones, computers and laptops.
The program may cover the cost of the USMLE Step 3 Exam and ABFM board certification exam separately. Please see Liz Stahl for further details.
Sick Leave and Leave of Absence Policy
As Swedish employees, all residents must use the leave policies of Swedish Medical Center as a basis for planning any leave of absence. Sick leave accumulates at the rate of one day per month of full employment. A resident does not have to use vacation or sick time if s/he works part of the day.
All residents must notify the program chiefs and the residency scheduler if they are going to miss work due to illness.
Sick leave may be used for:
• An employee’s illness or injury of a full day.
• Care for a child with a health condition that requires treatment or supervision if the child under the age of 18 (or eighteen years of age or older but incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability) for absences of a full day.
• An emergency or serious health condition of a spouse, parent, parent-in-law, or grandparent of an employee.
Employees who are absent from work due to caring for a dependent child or qualifying family member may elect to utilize sick or vacation leave accruals to provide pay for that time. Unless otherwise identified by the employee, time scheduled and not worked to care for a qualifying family member will be paid first by sick leave, then vacation.
Employees who have time scheduled and not worked due to their own injury or illness must first use sick leave, then vacation.
Please refer to the SMC Sick Leave: Exempt Staff policy for further details. Residents are also eligible for FMLA, Swedish Medical Leave and Bereavement Leave as outlined in those policies.
Due to the continuity of care requirements, any leave of absence from residency training requires notification to the ABFM. If the leave of absence is greater than 3 months, it can require restarting training at the beginning of the R-2 year unless an exemption is granted by the ABFM for hardship. Any leave of absence must be approved by the program director and the ABFM.
Maternity leave can be for a maximum of 12 weeks. During this leave, the resident must first use her sick leave that she has accrued and may use up to 1 week of vacation time. After that, an unpaid LOA is allowed up to the point that the resident has been off a total of 12 weeks. The program director will work with the resident to adjust her graduation date to meet the ABFM guidelines.
Other parental leave is taken as unpaid personal leave and may be up to six weeks in duration. Vacation days may also be applied toward this leave. This leave may also require an adjustment to the resident’s graduation date as needed to meet the ABFM guidelines.