Following a policy change required by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and an update on the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) position on leave, the American Board of Dermatology (ABD) will implement a new Resident Leave policy, stipulating that, within certain parameters, time spent away from training for family and parental leave not exhaust vacation time or require an extension in training. This new policy will be implemented July 1, 2021. The full policy appears below.
ABD Policy on Absences in Training Programs of 2 or More Years Duration
Effective July 1, 2021
The American Board of Dermatology supports parental, caregiver and medical leave during training beyond time allowed for vacation.
Departure from completing 36 continuous months of fulltime dermatology training, for example medical leave of absence or care of a newborn / immediate family member, should be documented and justified to the Board through the resident evaluation forms filed annually by the program director. The approval of such absences is at the discretion of the local program director / clinical competency committee.
Absence from training exceeding 8 weeks (6 weeks leave + 2 weeks vacation) in a given year or 16 weeks over three years should be approved only under exceptional circumstances and may necessitate additional training time to ensure that competency requirements are met. The ABD will rely on the program director to attest when a trainee afforded extra time away from training is competent for initial certification.
Time away spent in program-approved conferences designed to develop dermatology-relevant competencies is not to be used in calculating the total time away from training. Residents may have up to 1 week (5 weekdays) per year for educational leave and anything beyond that is at the discretion of the program director.
