Meetings and Vacations

  1. Residents are entitled to four weeks (twenty working days) vacation a year. It is anticipated that one week will be used for educational purposes and three weeks for vacation time. All absences, with the exception of illness, family emergency and holidays, but including interviews, job searches, etc., are included in the twenty vacation days.

All absences should be reported to Dr. Hurwitz or Dr. Shuler, in Roanoke. The preferred method for requesting absences is written prior approval , the forms can be obtained from Mindy Franke. In the unlikely event that written approval cannot be obtained in advance, the absence must still be reported as above. A resident who is absent for more than twenty working days without authorization by the department chairman may be denied residency certification.

  1. No more than one resident from a given rotation should be away at any one time for either meetings or vacation. For those at affiliated hospitals, no more than one shall be away at any one time for meetings or vacation.
  2. Time spent presenting a paper at a national meeting (see National Meeting Guidelines) is included in the four weeks vacation time.
  3. Time spent interviewing for jobs and/or fellowships is included in vacation time and is not in addition to vacation time.

No vacations should be taken in June, July or while on the Sports Team (Chairman's service).

  1. Review courses will be at the residents' own expense, and must be taken as vacation time included in the four weeks provided.
  2. Coverage for the resident on call must be arranged well in advance with the other residents.
  3. The yearly vacation and meeting schedule should be developed in July of each year. Scheduling will be completed during the first three weeks of July for the entire year, in accordance with seniority.
  4. In the course of the four year residency training program, each resident should try to attend a course in three of the following five categories, for a total of three courses taken during the entire residency training program. Approved courses are as follows:
    • Pathology
      • AFIP
      • CWRU
    • Pediatrics
      • Tachdjian's Course
    • Prosthetics/Orthotics
      • Northwestern
    • AAOS Annual Meeting (in one of last two years)
      • Summer Institute
    • Trauma
      • Basic AO course in continental USA or Canada
    • OTA Meeting
      • Residents Course
    • Southeastern Fracture Symposium
  5. Accurate expense accounts and receipts of activities must be returned by the resident to the Department business office to comply with IRS regulations.
  6. In addition to the above, residents will be allowed to attend legitimate national meetings at which they are presenting papers which have been accepted. Examples of this type of meeting are:
    • AOA Residents Conference
    • AAOS Annual Meeting
    • AOA National Meeting
    • ORS Annual Meeting

    Funding for these meetings is in addition to each resident's individual budget. All questions regarding travel funding should be directed to the department business office.