Becoming a Doctor, Starting a Family — Leaves of Absence from Graduate Medical Education

Colleagues offered congratulations when Mike and Anya announced that they were expecting a baby — due a few months before their expected graduation from residency programs in radiology and family medicine. Both had plum jobs lined up across the country, where grandparents could help with child care.Mike's radiology program director told him he could take 8 weeks of parental leave and that the American Board of Radiology would exempt him from making up this time. Mike's fellow residents were relieved that the extra on-call responsibility would not be distributed among them but rather would be covered by moonlighters. Unfortunately, . . .