All training programs sponsored by the University of Florida shall be in compliance with the Resident Duty Hour requirements established by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
Description of fellow duty hour requirements:
- Fellow duty hours must not be excessive and will be consistent with ACGME’s Residency Review Committee (RRC) policy and program requirements.
- Duty hours are defined as all clinical and academic activities related to the fellowship program, including inpatient and outpatient clinical care, inhouse call, short call, night float and day float, transfer of patient care, and administrative activities related to patient care, such as completing medical records, ordering and reviewing lab tests, and signing orders. For calls from home, time devoted to clinical work done from home and time spent in the hospital after being called in to provide patient care count toward the 80-hour weekly limit. Types of work from home that must be counted include using an electronic health record and taking calls. Reading done in preparation for the following day’s cases, studying, and research done from home do not count toward the 80 hours. If attendance at a conference is required by the program, or if the fellow is a representative for the program (e.g., he/she is presenting a paper or poster), the hours should be included as clinical and educational work hours. Travel time and non-conference hours while away do not meet the definition of “clinical and educational work hours” in the ACGME requirements.
- Hours spent on activities that are required in the accreditation requirements, such as membership on a hospital committee, or that are accepted practice in residency/fellowship programs, such as fellows’ participation in interviewing residency/fellowship candidates, must be included in the count of clinical and educational work hours.
- Clinical work done from home will be counted toward the 80-hour limit and will be required to be logged in New Innovations. When called in, time spent in-house in patient care activities will be counted toward the 80-hour limit and will be required to be logged in New Innovations.
- Duty hours and on-call responsibilities will be consistent with the educational needs of the fellow. The training program in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology is not designed to maintain resident coverage of all institutional service obligations.
- Duty hours will be limited to 80 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period. Fellows in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology are not required to take in-house calls.
- Fellows will be provided with a minimum of 1 day (one continuous 24-hour period) in 7, averaged over a 4 week period, totally free from all clinical, educational, and administrative activities.
- Fellows’ schedules will be structured to ensure they are provided with a minimum of eight hours off between scheduled clinical work and education periods.
- As noted above, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellows are not required to take in-house calls but are required to participate in at-home (beeper) calls. The frequency of beeper calls will be no more frequent than every third night during the week.
- On the rare occasion that the fellow spends such time in-house related to beeper calls that this would impact upon duty hour requirements (total weekly hours, 24-hour rule, 8-hour time block between scheduled clinical work and education periods), the Fellowship Director will make appropriate changes in the fellow’s schedule in keeping with the spirit and guidelines of the ACGME regulations.
- All outside activity (internal and external moonlighting) must comply with all of the above duty hour restrictions and counts toward the 80-hour maximum weekly limit. All moonlighting must first be approved by the Fellowship Director. Moonlighting must not interfere with the ability of the fellow to achieve the goals and objectives of the educational program, and must not interfere with the fellow’s fitness for work nor compromise patient safety.
- Compliance with duty hour rules will be monitored by fellow interviews, monthly fellow questionnaires, duty hour logs, and Program Director questionnaires and review of duty hour logs.