Organizations overseeing physician training (like ABMS¹ and ACGME²) have recently demonstrated a renewed commitment to supporting physicians’ holistic development by adopting new mandatory leave requirements for physicians-in-training (Residents and Fellows).

These changes come at a time when the U.S. is reacting to a post COVID-19 pandemic vision of work: long gone are the days when personal identities and commitments are expected to drop at the workplace door. Rather, employers are being asked to see their personnel as whole people, with conflicting personal and professional priorities. In Medicine, residency and fellowship training programs are finding a similar need to accommodate their trainees’ personal lives—particularly in family planning and wellness. Residency and Fellowship years collide with prime family development years. Recognizing this, the ABMS and ACGME have adopted new minimum leave requirements to standardize medical, parental, and caregiver leave rights across training programs nationwide.

Specifically, last year, the ABMS adopted new leave policies³ expressly calling for its programs to offer medical, parental and caregiver leave to all Residents/Fellows. Now, beginning on July 1, 2022, the ACGME will require all ACGME-accredited Programs to offer six (6) weeks of paid leave to all Residents/Fellows for medical, parental and caregiver leave, with the right to take such leave kicking-in on the individual’s very first day in the Program.⁴

The new...

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