Longer Parental Leave for Surgical Trainees?

For decades, surgical residents who became parents during training often did so at a cost, but a culture shift may be in the works.

A group of three surgical trainees has posted an open letter online asking the American Board of Surgery (ABS) to update its family leave policy to keep up with a policy change from the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), which calls for at least 6 weeks of leave during training for parental, caregiver, or medical purposes.

The group is seeking electronic signatures on the letter by garnering social media support.

“If you think surgical trainees deserve better parental leave protections (they do), please consider co-signing this open letter to the @AmBdSurg by midnight,” Cornelia Griggs, MD, an attending pediatric surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, tweeted on Monday.

Griggs has long advocated for parental leave protections for surgical trainees. While she was not involved in drafting the letter, she calls herself a “champion” of it, and is working with its writers, who prefer to remain anonymous.

Griggs had both her children during general surgery residency, and says that this issue has affected her “on a very personal level.” Her hope is to engage ABS in conversation with a working group of key stakeholders on this issue.

“The ideal outcome of the letter is that it will garner enough support that the ABS will invite us to take part of a working group and engage us in a conversation about expanding parental leave policies,” Griggs told MedPage Today.

The issue is part of a larger movement to expand parental leave for residents. In July 2020, ABMS announced the adoption of a parental leave policy that will allow residents and fellows to take at least 6 weeks off from training for parental, caregiver, and medical leave, without subtracting from their vacation or sick time and without requiring their training to be extended. The changes are set to go into effect in July.

In response, other surgery boards — including the American Boards of Neurological Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, and Plastic Surgery — have updated their family leave policies, but ABS has not done so.

The ABS leave policy allows for 4 weeks off each year for nonclinical activities like vacation, conferences, fellowship interviews, etc., with just 2 additional weeks allowed for family leave. So taking off more than 2 weeks after having a child could deduct from vacation or other nonclinical time.

In their open letter, the writers propose that the ABS should update their family leave policy to allow 6 weeks of parental leave without eating into other leave time. They also call for other changes, such as competency-based exemptions for residents with fewer than required clinical weeks per year due to parental leave, and rolling over weeks of leave from one year to the next.

Griggs says no one is arguing that trainees who wish to have children should be rushed through residency, or that competencies should be compromised. However, she believes “very strongly that the decision to become a surgeon and a parent should not be mutually exclusive.”

“This is a movement to normalize childbearing during training,” she said. “You should not have to choose between your dreams professionally or personally.”

“It is time to take a hard look at our policies and show our surgical trainees the dignity, humanity, and respect that they deserve in the same way that all of our patients deserve that level of protection,” she said. “I believe we are a humane profession and I’d like to see our parental leave policies reflect that more accurately.”