Accounting for Non-Educational Time Away from Educational Program

To establish guidelines as to a maximum time away from the residency training program to adequately assess a resident’s successful completion of the rotation or other educational program.

To successfully complete a rotation, preceptors must have adequate assessment time with the individual resident.

Programs can establish minimal time required per rotation, i.e., place a cap on a non-educational time away from a rotation. When determining the minimal time required on a rotation, programs should consider opportunities for observation and assessment, appropriate supervision, and patient safety.

Non-Educational Time Away: Time requested by the resident and granted by the Program Director to be absent from training during a rotation, for reasons other than educational, program required and/or program organized activities, and statutory holidays, as specified below.

Regular Workday: Monday to Friday as defined in the Collective Agreement between the University of Saskatchewan and Resident Doctors of Saskatchewan.

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA): Refers to the Collective Agreement between the University of Saskatchewan and Resident Doctors of Saskatchewan.

This guideline applies to residents and faculty in all residency training programs at the College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan.

This guideline is based on the Collective Agreement between University of Saskatchewan and the Resident Doctors of Saskatchewan and The Saskatchewan Labour Standards Act 2014, The Canada Labour Code (Part III), and the Leave of Absence from Residency Training policy.

Non-educational time away from the program should not generally exceed 25% of the regular workdays in an initial rotation regardless of the length of rotation (i.e., a 4-week block (20 weekdays) would allow a resident to miss up to a maximum of 5 working days).

Flexibility in applying the 25% cap should be at the discretion of the Program Director and Residency Training Committee (RTC/RPC) to allow for assessment of each resident’s ability to demonstrate the required competencies. Resident input will be considered. Programs may consult with PGME to determine best practice.

Educational based decision-making that requires more stringency will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Decisions will be made at the Program Director and RTC/RPC’s discretion.

Any time missed beyond the 25%, or more stringent caps established by the program, resulting in a resident not achieving the required competencies to pass the rotation, would have to be rescheduled, with the total duration of the program extended if necessary to meet the competencies required to pass the rotation.

The following types of non-educational time away from the program ARE included in the 25% cap:

1) Vacation Leave

• 20 regular workdays per academic year, as per the CBA

2) Sick Leave

• accumulate 15 regular workdays per academic year (up to 75 regular workdays), as per the CBA

3) Compassionate Leave

• 3 to 5 regular workdays per occasion, as per the CBA

4) Family/Personal Responsibility Leave

• 2 regular workdays per academic year, as per the CBA

5) Maternity Leave

• 17 weeks per occasion

6) Paternity Leave

• 5 regular workdays per occasion, as per conditions determined in the CBA

7) Parental Leave

• up to 63 weeks, not exceeding 78 weeks total maternity + parental leave

8) 6 Consecutive Days Off during the Seasonal Slowdown

• only count the regular workdays Monday-Friday as time away;
• do not count weekends, Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day as time away

9) Leave of Absence (both paid and unpaid) as established in the Leave of Absence from Residency policy, including longer term medical, personal leaves and program mandated leaves

The following types of time away from the program ARE NOT included in the 25% cap:

1) Education Leave

• Minimum of 7 calendar days and maximum of 12 calendar days per academic year, as per the CBA

2) Exam Leave

• Day prior to outbound travel, day of travel, day or two to sit exam, day of return travel, as per the CBA

3) Moving Leave

• Minimum of 36 hours, as per the CBA

4) Statutory Holidays

• New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Saskatchewan Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, as per the CBA
• Days in lieu of the Middle Day or Statutory Holiday
• Post-Call Days
• Mandatory training, including academic half days, and other program mandated activities such as research days, program retreats, etc.

Schedulers and residents will work together to ensure that rotation schedules accurately reflect the number of days for non-academic time away granted to a resident by the Program Director. It is expected that open dialogue will occur between the Program Director (or Program Administrative Assistant, as delegated) and the resident prior to the schedule finalization if there are concerns that a resident’s schedule does not meet the required caps.

Instances or concerns of non-compliance with this guideline should be brought to the attention of the Associate Dean, PGME.

Programs and Residents should contact the PGME Coordinator for Academic and Non-Academic Processes with any concerns or questions about the policy.

Coordinator for Academic and Non-Academic Processes, PGME Office.

Phone: 306-966-6145