Dermatoethics consultation
Parental leave in dermatology residency: Ethical considerations

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Discussion

According to the ABD, maternity leave in dermatology residency must be taken from 14 weeks of leave allotted to residents over 3 years. For example, if a resident chooses to take 6 weeks of maternity leave, she could accomplish this by using all of her allotted vacation time for the year (4 weeks), plus using all 10 of her emergency sick days. If a resident has already used her vacation or wishes to extend her leave further, she must delay her graduation to make up this time. The ABD also

Bottom line

Residents face a difficult choice in deciding when to begin a family and may feel pressure to delay childbearing. In our opinion, the current system for taking parental leave may discourage residents from starting families. Although program directors do have discretion to allow greater leave without delaying graduation or boards for residents with above average performance, current ABD policy limits total leave to 14 weeks, including vacation time. Given that the typical vacation allowance is 3

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References (9)

  • B.R. Reed et al.

    Position paper on family or personal leave, including pregnancy, during residency

    J Am Acad Dermatol

    (2001)
  • American Board of Dermatology. Guidelines for determining adequacy of clinical training. Available from: URL:...
  • US Department of Labor. Wage and Hour Division (WHD): Family and Medical Leave Act. Available from: URL:...
  • Rosen RJ. A map of maternity leave policies around the world. The Atlantic. Available from: URL:...
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

Funding sources: None.

Conflicts of interest: None declared.

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