Family Leave

We fully support family leave for any trainee welcoming a new family member through birth, fostering or adoption. We also support medical leave if you need to care for a family member with a qualifying serious health condition.

All residents and fellows in our program have the option of arranging for a minimum of six weeks of time away from training for purposes of parental, caregiver and medical leave at least once during training, without exhausting all other allowed time away from training and without extending training. 

If you have an anticipated need for family leave, provide written notice as early as possible to your program director and program coordinator so that we can accommodate you as best as possible without compromising timely graduation requirements.  

Fellows

The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) Sub-Specialty Examination Requirements as well as the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements state that training length is 12 months to qualify to sit for the examination.  

No specific policy in regards to leave from training is specified in either of the requirements. However, you must meet specific training milestones and satisfactory surgical skill requirements prior to graduation. Any training milestones and skills found deficient prior to graduation may require that the length of training be extended. This will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Residents

The ABOS mandates that you must fulfill the following minimums in order to sit for board exams:

  • you must work at least 46-50 weeks/year averaged over five years; you cannot work more than 50 weeks in any given year

First-year residents

  • six months on non-orthopaedic rotations as specified in the ABOS requirements (surgical skills, TICU, ER, GS vascular, GS trauma and anesthesia) and six months of orthopaedic surgery 

Second-year through fifth-year residents

  • 46 weeks adult orthopaedics
  • 46 weeks fractures/trauma
  • 23 weeks pediatrics
  • 23 weeks basic/clinical specialties

Based on the above guidelines, as a resident in our program, you may take up to six weeks of leave in a single year without affecting time-away allowances in other years; this leave includes the use of vacation and sick time.

You may take additional leave in a single academic year based on delivery type. However, it may then affect leave allowances later in training and may affect the minimum subspecialty requirements as required by the ABOS — and it may potentially necessitate an extension of the training period upon your return to work. 

Questions?

If you have questions about maternity, paternity and qualifying medical leave, please contact:

Susan Daoust, MD

Email: smeckert@bufalo.edu