PTO Policy: Time Away From Residency

Per your signed Parkland contract, residents are granted 25 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) from July 1 to June 30th. This comes from our central Parkland Graduate Medical Education office. It is derived from the American Board of Internal Medicine, which allows up to 3 months of time away from formal training (you must finish 33/36 months to be eligible for board certification).

Up to one month per academic year is permitted for time away from training, which includes vacation, illness, parental or family leave, or pregnancy-related disabilities. Training must be extended to make up any absences exceeding one month per year of training. Vacation leave is essential and should not be forfeited or postponed in any year of training and cannot be used to reduce the total required training period. ABIM recognizes that leave policies vary from institution to institution and expects the program director to apply his/her local requirements within these guidelines to ensure trainees have completed the requisite period of training

Source: https://www.abim.org/certification/policies/general/special-training-policies.aspx

PTO Days

IMPORTANT: PTO includes vacation time and does not include weekends. As a UTSW resident employed by Parkland, you have 15 days of vacation (3 weeks) per year. This leaves 10 PTO days for each academic year (25-15 = 10 days). However, as of 7/1/2020, all UTSW IM residents will be assigned 5 days of remote study. During this time, residents will not be assigned to clinical duties. This means that as of 7/1/2020 all UTSW IM residents will have only 5 unassigned discretionary days. If you wish to forego the 5 days of remote study to leave your 10 days of PTO unassigned, please email . Please note, PTO is a bit of a misnomer. As we all accept the same salary per year, these days do not have a monetary value. Instead, they represent days that you are able to spend away from residency training per academic year. These discretionary days do not recycle each year and are managed by Parkland’s Graduate Medical Education office.

Using Discretionary Days

What should a resident do if they have a social event, interview, or planned testing date where they know they would:

prefer not to come to their scheduled work
know they will not be able to come to work?

ANSWER: The resident must obtain coverage.

What is the most optimal way to obtain coverage?

Review Amion to identify residents who are available to provide coverage (scheduled day off, study day, elective rotations) and coordinate with them individually to obtain coverage. We discourage mass emails to entire resident classes as this contributes to email bloat and has a lower likelihood of receiving a favorable response. When obtaining coverage, we will not utilize a resident's PTO day if there is a reciprocal switch (reciprocal coverage arranged at the same time). Strive for coverage that is fair and even (ICU for ICU, inpatient for inpatient, clinic for clinic); however, as long as the educational requirements and ACGME limitations are not threatened, the chiefs will not interfere with trade agreements between residents.

Example: Resident 1 wants to attend a wedding. Months in advance, he reaches out to Resident 2 who is willing to “cover” Resident 1’s clinical responsibilities. In response, Resident 1 will then cover Resident 2’s clinical responsibilities in the future. The swap includes details of the exact rotation and shift that are being swapped. No PTO is utilized for either resident.

However, sometimes residents agree to cover another resident with the understanding that they owe a favor to the other resident. In order to stay compliant with GME rules, however, we will utilize the absentee resident’s PTO.

Example: Resident 1 has Step 3 scheduled for November 1. Resident 1 obtains coverage for November 1, and the covering resident, Resident 2, does not have coverage needs at this time. We will utilize one of Resident 1’s PTO days, because they are being paid for a day for which they were scheduled to work and will no longer be working. However, if Resident 2 needs coverage in the same academic year and Resident 1 is able to cover, we will give Resident 1 this PTO day back as it turns into a reciprocal swap.

What is the purpose of a PTO day?

PTO days should not be thought of as additional days to take vacation. As we state above, ABIM mandates that residents not be away from training for greater than 3 months in 3 years, which Parkland has set as 25 days per academic year. Residents are currently provided many study half-days during clinic weeks and hybrids that, in total, often exceed the days of PTO that are allotted for you. However, in order to foster a sense of wellbeing and promote academic and professional development, we as a program do not currently utilize residents PTO days for study half-days. We also do not utilize PTO days for attending conferences or if reciprocal swaps are made for interview coverage.

PTO represents days in which a resident is able to step away from clinical responsibilities to due unforeseen events, family emergencies, or medical illness. Residents sometimes do utilize their maximum PTO days in a given year due to unforeseen events. In these situations, we as a program work with residents on a case-by-case basis to identify and meet their needs. However, in the past, residents have had to continue training past July of their PGY3 year per ABIM rules.

Example: Resident 1 had a medical illness that required a prolonged hospital stay of 7 days. Seven PTO days are utilized. Resident 1 will continue to receive his normal salary and will be away from training for those days.
Example: Resident 2 has a family emergency that requires him to be away from training for 4 days. Four of Resident 2’s PTO days are utilized.
Example: Resident 3 has not had any emergencies through residency. No PTO days are utilized and will start the following year with all of their allowable PTO.
Example: Resident 4 has a medical illness and needs more than the maximum allotted unassigned days away from work. The Chiefs will work with this Resident to decide next steps as this Resident has run out of PTO days.

Religious Holidays

If a resident needs to step away from work for a religious holiday, we ask that these holidays be mentioned in the schedule preference form. If a holiday is a day that you will strongly prefer for vacation, please indicate so in your scheduling preference form. We can plan ahead for these holidays during schedule creation.

Activities/days, that do not require the utilization of PTO days:

Jury Duty
Academic Conferences (unless a resident fails to arrange coverage)
Holidays for which the clinic you are assigned is closed
Holidays for which your assigned rotation permits you to be out that day
Fellowship interviews in which you have obtained your own coverage with a resident who is not otherwise assigned to clinical duties (elective, normal scheduled day off)
Step 3, ITE, Board exams (unless a resident fails to arrange coverage)
Bereavement (up to 3 days)

Activities that require PTO utilization:

Leaving residency early to travel to fellowship
Sick days
Unexpected and unplanned absences
Bereavement (over 3 days). The IM program is here to support residents and can work with you on a case by case basis
Family emergency
Fellowship interview for which coverage was obtained through EROC
Any anticipated absence for which the resident did not arrange adequate coverage

Frequently asked questions:

What do I do if I cannot find coverage?

Throughout our careers as physicians, we will be expected to find coverage for days we will not be at work. Residents are expected to find and coordinate coverage for any anticipated absence.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, residents are occasionally are unable to find another resident who can cover the workday. In these situations, the chiefs are here to help you. We ask that you notify the scheduling chiefs more than 2 weeks prior to the event. The chiefs can help find additional people to ask for coverage. In order to avoid unfair pressure on residents being asked to cover by chief residents, residents are expected to email their peers with coverage requests directly. If a resident does not receive any response or is still unable to find coverage, the chiefs will then reach out on their behalf on a case by case basis.

IMPORTANT: If no coverage can be found for an anticipated social/personal event, we will NOT utilize the emergency on-call resident to cover you so you can attend. This is not fair to the covering resident or your peers.

Can I pay another resident to cover my shift instead of providing them with reciprocal coverage?

What do I do about Jury Duty?

Jury duty is part of your role as a U.S. Citizen and we are committed to minimizing the stress of attending to this civic duty. Notify IMSchedule immediately when you find out you have jury duty. We can inform you about the process and experiences other residents have had.

You may be able to defer jury duty to a less stressful/demanding rotation. If this is not possible, the chiefs will help you find coverage for this, recognizing jury duty is not voluntary. This is predicated on you notifying the chiefs soon after being notified of your jury duty call. Failure to provide adequate notice will require the utilization of PTO days if advanced coverage cannot be obtained.

What do I do if I get a last-minute interview offer and don’t have the time to find coverage?

What do I do if I have excess PTO days?

If you do not have emergency issues or need to step away for family reasons, you will likely have PTO left over. This is by design as we do not want residents having to continue training into July after they “graduate,” which can throw off fellowship plans. Currently, during clinic week each resident is assigned study half-days that vastly supersede the number of allowable PTO days. We will try not to utilize PTO for the vast majority of reasons. Any excess PTO days cannot be used or “cashed out”. If you need a day off to attend something, please reference the above detail about finding coverage.

What do I do if I have run out of PTO days and have a health or family emergency?

Life happens. We recognize that emergencies and unpredictable situations arise. The program and the chiefs will do everything in their power to support you through these challenging periods. This includes moving vacations and schedule blocks, arranging coverage and connecting you with resources and wellness support. In rare instances, some residents have had to continue past June into July after 3rd year to fulfill ABIM requirements for completion of 33/36 months. These situations should be discussed with the chiefs in person and will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

What if I am a 3rd-year resident and I ran out of PTO days? Can I still leave early?

Leaving early is a privilege to facilitate the transition of graduating residents to their fellowships or the next stage of their career. We understand these transitions/moves can be very stressful and are committed to helping you find the time to get where you need to go. However, if you have run out of PTO days, you will not be able to leave early at the end of June of your 3rd year.

Who do I contact for questions about my PTO?