Procedures and Guidelines

Division of General Surgery Resident Vacation Policy

Categories: Surgery General Surgery

Resident Vacation Policy

A. Rationale

  1. The PAIRS Collective Agreement (article 12.0 -vacation leave).

  2. The Labor Standards Act for the Province of Saskatchewan, 1995.

  3. University policy:

    “All departments must: (1) allow employees to schedule the full vacation time to which they are entitled within the vacation year; and (2) ensure that employees take their full vacation within the vacation year.”

  4. Postgraduate Medical Education Resident Handbook:

    “All residents are entitled to four calendar weeks of vacation with pay (20 regular working days off) during each year of residency training... Vacation time is provided for rest and relaxation away from the workplace for all employees of the University.”

B. Policy

  1. It is the resident’s right to take vacation for one week every 3 months. Vacation time is important to mental health, and, in the end, probably makes a resident more ready to learn and more productive. Therefore, attendings must not base evaluations on whether or not a resident takes vacation during time on that attending’s service, nor make inferences on a resident’s work ethic based on the resident taking vacation time.

  2. Residents are strongly encouraged to take one week vacation per three-month quarter.

    1. R1, R2, R3, R4 residents are allowed to carry forward 10 days to the next academic year. A request must be submitted prior to June of the current year.
    2. R5 residents must ensure they use all of their outstanding vacation time prior to leaving the program. Vacation requests have to be submitted no later than March 31st or vacation time will be mandated.

  3. Except in exceptional circumstances (listed below) vacation time is not permitted from June 15 to July 14 inclusive of any given year.

  4. Exceptions to B.1., B.2., and B.3. may be made in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Program Director and Residency Training Committee. Exceptional circumstances include, but are not limited to, wedding plans, extension of maternity or paternity leave. If a resident plans it in advance, exceptions can be made to allow for travel requiring greater than one week vacation time.

  5. Vacation time will be reviewed for each resident at each quarterly interview.

  6. In order to meet the requirements of the rotation, a resident cannot be away from a rotation more than 25% which includes all leaves (Sick, Vacation, Education, Paternity, Christmas, New Year days....)

    • Away time is calculated using calendar days.
    • 1 block rotation = 5 calendar days (3 working days and 2 weekend days)
    • 2 block rotation = 9 calendar days (5 working days and 2 weekend days before and after)

  7. A resident can be mandated to use leftover vacation time; provided 4 weeks’ notice is given. Vacation requests have to be submitted no later than March 31st or vacation time will be mandated.

C. Procedure

  1. Fill out the Leave Request Form well in advance of your leave request. The College of Medicine requires signed requests at least two weeks in advance of your leave.

  2. The resident is responsible to get their Administrative Resident, Clinical Supervisor, and Call Schedule Coordinator signatures prior to submission to Karen for the Program Director’s signature. If the resident does not take call, he or she should indicate N/A in the Call Schedule Coordinator signature line.

  3. Resident vacations will be updated on the One45 system. It is the resident’s responsibility to ensure that these are correct and to let Karen know if there are any errors or omissions.

  4. Remember to practice good communication and let your attendings/team know in advance that you are going away. Also, please let switchboard know of the dates you will be away just before you leave.

  5. Please note that Leave Requests are not approved until all signatures are obtained.